The Romance Tower
by Galaxyexplorer74
Summary: This is my first fanfic, so please R&R. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang have to deal with some new feelings, and a new kid. How will he affect their relationships? And how will his friends affect their future? Huge thanks to my two friends who helped write this story.
1. Chapter 1

The Romance Tower

 _ **A/N: Hello hunters and huntresses and welcome to my first fanfic. This came to me while I was dreaming (both daydreaming and real dreaming).**_

 _ **Now, I will change a few things from the actual canon happenings, especially the end of Volume 3. Some changes will be that Beacon does not fall but it is attacked, Emerald and Mercury change their minds (you'll see), and well, you can guess what the main pairings are. One more thing is that there are some OCs who are pretty important to this fic.**_

 _ **I hope you all enjoy and don't forget to review and leave some constructive criticism. I do want to get better.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or any of its characters. The only thing I own are my OCs. Trust me, if I did own RWBY, so much White Rose and Bumblebee**_

 **Ch. 1**

 **Ruby's POV**

No, no, no! Why would this happen?! Not… Penny. I was sitting in the arena. It was supposed to be a friendly competition, just to see who would win. Then everything went wrong. Yang shot Mercury, getting herself disqualified, and now… Penny. Why was the only thing that went through my mind. There were Grimm all over Beacon now, being the monsters that they are, attacking everything in sight. _I'm not cut out to be a huntress. I couldn't stop Mercury and I can't stop the Grimm. I couldn't help Penny… I'm a failure._ Then a new, familiar voice cut through my self loathing.

 _"You're a huntress, whether you failed to help me or not doesn't matter. There are still people who need help."_

"Penny?" I whispered, afraid.

 _"If you leave the people of Vale to die, then you're no better than Cinder and her goons."_

"B-But, I failed" I said, shaking from crying so much. _"Everyone fails some time. That doesn't make you a failure, it makes you human. What makes you better is picking yourself up and continuing to try. The Ruby I know would never give up, no matter what. Are you still the Ruby I knew?"_

These words lit a small fire, but it wasn't enough "How can I stop this? I'm not strong enough."

 _"That's what your friends are for"_ my thoughts went to Yang, the stubborn, hotheaded, yet caring brawler that I'm proud to call my sister. She's helped me so much throughout my years. Then Blake, the mysterious and quiet faunus. Sure I don't know her the best, but she is an amazing teammate who will always have my back. And then… Weiss, the beautiful "Ice Queen", as many people had become accustomed to calling her, especially Yang. God, she's so beautiful, her white locks flowing, her long pale legs. Her jagged scar is her only imperfection, yet it just adds to her beauty.

 _"Whether she knows it or not, she needs you. You're her light in the darkness, the rose in a lifeless meadow, the Beacon in a Dark world."_ This surprised me at first, but I remembered that she is just a voice in my head. My subconscious trying to talk to me. Still, it spurred me into action. The one thing that I will always fight for no matter what. Weiss Schnee.

"I will fight… for her." I leapt into the arena to call my weapons in. "always for her."

 **Unknown POV**

"Humph!" I grunted as I lifted the huge tree. "Gonna need more than this to last the winter." As I went through the forest, I let my mind wander while dragging the tree back. _I can't believe I'm turning 17 in a couple weeks. These past couple years have gone by so fast. Soon, I'll be out of my mom's house and exploring the world._ Don't get me wrong, I love her, but sometimes she can get kinda restricting, especially when it comes to exploring.

 **Flashback**

" _Hunter, don't go in that forest."_

 _"But mom, why not?" I asked with a frown. I want to explore new places and discover new things. Plus I'm fifteen, I can handle myself._

 _"There are Grimm in that forest and I don't want you to get hurt." She said with a serious look, but also with the hints of something else. Is it sadness, anger? I can't tell._

 _"Mom, I can handle myself. You know how much I train every day." I said, getting a little angry._

 _"You cannot go in there and that's final."_

 _After a little bit of thought, I said with determination "No, that's not final. I've gone into Grimm-infested areas before with your permission, places much more dangerous than that forest. Why are you so afraid? Do you think I'm just naïve and don't know about life? Do you think that I can't-"_

 _"Hunter!" I stopped talking. I raised my voice a little too much. Well a lot actually, without realizing it. I gave her an apologetic look._

 _"Sorry." I said with regret._

 _"No, I should be sorry." She sighed. I looked surprised and was about to ask why, before she cut me off by putting her hand up. "Let's go inside." I didn't question it as I followed her back to our house. When we got inside, she looked very weary, adding about 10 or 20 years to how she looked. "Your father was a great Hunter. Going to Beacon, getting trained and saving people was his dream since he was 10." I wasn't surprised by the information, but by the fact that we were talking about my father. We haven't talked about him since he died when I was 6. At the time, I did understand the concept of death. I matured a lot faster than other people my age and so, when my mom was bawling her eyes out and I saw the hunters that I knew were friends of my dad, I knew what had happened. "that's one reason he named you Hunter, he wanted you to be a hunter just like him, saving people and putting your skills to the test for the greater good. When I was told he died, I couldn't believe it and… broke down, as you know. I told you I didn't know exactly where he died, but it was somewhere far away on a mission. Well, that's not the whole truth." I blinked in surprise. I can't believe she didn't tell me, but I'll listen. I nodded at her to indicate for her to continue. "He died in the Oum forest… the forest that you want to explore so badly." I… I can't believe it. All this time I thought that my father died nowhere near us, when in reality, he was right there. "he was on his way back from a mission and decided to cut through the Oum forest to get home faster… when he was ambushed by the Grimm." She started to cry and I did as well._

 _"Oh my God, I-I can't believe it. Why didn't you tell me before now?" I asked in a calm, but breaking voice, a couple tears starting to fall._

 _"I didn't want you to think that it was our fault he died. I wanted you to think he died a hero, on a mission trying to save people. I wanted to protect you from that guilt."_

 _I could tell from the way she said it, that she held that guilt. She truly thought it was our fault. "Mom, it's not your fault, nor is it mine. Yes, he died trying to get home early, but that wasn't the reason. He could've been ambushed at any time anywhere. We live in the middle of nowhere, no main protected roads lead here. It wasn't our fault." We both started to cry together._

 **End of flashback**

We talked for a while and came to the agreement that I can handle myself, but I'm not allowed to be out there for more than a couple hours. If I am, then my mom will come, with some hunters, to find me. It's a reasonable rule and I haven't broken it yet. I wonder how Beacon is doing nowadays, I heard they got a whole bunch of new recruits and that they're amazing. "Should I join up? It might be a good thing. I could learn a lot and hone my skills more, though they don't need a lot. I've been training for years, I'm so observa- ahhh!" *thud* "Goddammit… ow. That hurt, ironic as well. Figures, with my luck I would do something embarrassing like that while praising myself" I sigh, but then start chuckling. "Ah well, just gotta keep moving." I pick the tree up again and start heading back home. "Something else I wonder, why do I talk to myself so much? I'm literally in the middle of nowhere talking to myself. You know what, Imma just stop talking and focus on not embarrassing myself this time."

After about 30 minutes, I'm finally back home. I drop the tree down next to our log cabin. It's pretty small, with two bedrooms, one bath and our living room… which is also our kitchen and our dining room. Yeah, it's not a lot but it's enough. I walk in the door, making a ruckus as always. God I hate growth spurts, so clumsy afterwards. "Welcome home sweetie. How was it?"

"Eh, it was fine. I mean, carrying a huge tree for a half hour isn't the exactly a fun fest, but it was quiet." I say beaming my signature smile. Well, I say smile when most people would actually consider it more of a smirk.

"Well that's nice. Dinner's almost ready so go ahead and get comfortable." She says, smiling brightly. I go over to the couch… and basically flop on it, bouncing a few inches up. Guess I'm more tired than I thought. "Don't do that, I don't want the couch to break… again. Remember what happened last year?" she said with a knowing look.

"Sorry." Last year, I was so tired I tripped over my own feet and tried to catch myself using the couch… only for a part of the couch to rip as I grabbed them.

After a little while, I begin to smell something. "Hey mom, did you burn dinner again?"

"What? No, don't be ridiculous. However, I do smell something." She decides to look outside and I hear a sharp gasp.

"What's wrong?" I ask with concern etched onto my face. She wouldn't answer, because of shock I think. Now I'm really worried. I look outside and now I understand why. Beacon… on fire, Grimm everywhere, people running and screaming. "What the hell?!" I look at my mom and give her an apologetic look. She looks confused and then it dawns on her.

"NO! No, no, no, absolutely not! I will not allow you to put yourself into danger!" She screams, her eyes already starting to water.

I look at her with understanding and start to calmly say "Mom, I have to help. People are in danger and I would never forgive myself if Beacon falls and I know I could've done something about it. This is what being a hunter is about, helping those in need and never turning a blind eye. I have to try. Isn't this what dad always wanted? He always helped people and I want to do the same. Please mom, let me do this." I started out very steady and almost matter-of-factly, but as I went, I noticed my eyes getting foggy and tears going down my cheeks.

She looked at me with worry, concern, and love, but most importantly, she looked at me with understanding. She slowly nodded her head and said "Ok. Just, try to be careful and please come back alive."

I nodded "I'll try" I walk out the door, with determination and fire in my eyes. "Whoever did this, will pay." I say as I begin to run full speed to my father's school.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch. 2**

 **Yang's POV**

What the hell is going on? One second, everything was fine. I was fighting, doing what I do best, when I'm accused of mercilessly shooting Mercury for no reason. I don't understand and now to top it all off, Beacon is being attacked by Grimm. I don't know what's real anymore, but what I do know is that my team needs help. I call Blake and ask what's going on, but no one knows. They tell me that they're heading to the main courtyard with the fountain and to meet them there. I ask where Ruby is and they don't know that either, but they did say that she was last seen heading towards the courtyard from the arena. I agree to meet them there. I'm so worried about Ruby. Sure, she's our team leader and she can handle herself, but even this may be too much. I know my little sister and I know that she can be overwhelmed. As I head to the courtyard, I see all the destruction. Fire, collapsed buildings, Grimm… and bodies, bodies everywhere. They will pay for this!

I finally make it and see Blake and Weiss fighting off a few Beowolves. I decide to join in and finish this quick. I shoot the one to the side to get its attention and then proceed to punch the hell out of it. It's just us left, piles of Grimm all around. "What is happening?!" I ask, rather irritated since one of those beowolves almost cut my hair.

"We have no idea, it was all so sudden. It started when… when Pyrrha killed Penny." Blake sighed out the last part in sadness. I gasp and feel my eyes sting a little. Sure, I wasn't really one of her friends, but Ruby was and she seemed nice enough, if a little on the strange side. "Penny was actually an Atlas prototype, meaning she was a robot." Well I guess that explains her quirks.

I open my mouth to talk, when I hear a very familiar sound. The sound of a certain sniper being shot. We all look at each other and silently agree to go after her. There's Ruby, dozens of dead Grimm all around her, in the process of cutting another Ursa in half. "Ruby!" I yell, intending to get her attention. She turns to me and… she doesn't look good. No smile, no frown, nothing. Just an emptiness, though I could tell from the redness of her eyes, she was crying earlier. We all notice it and don't like it. We're used to the cookie-loving, fast, smiling "dolt", as Ice Queen always called her. We all go over and just hug her. She returns the hug almost immediately, starting to cry again. "It's ok little sis, we'll get through this, like we always do." I pull back and give her a smile and, for what looks like the first time in a while, she gives a small smile back.

"We'll always be here for you Ruby, we're your teammates second, friends first" Ice Qu- I mean, Weiss says to Ruby smiling. Ruby's smile grows bigger and I catch the split-second look Ruby gives her. Well this is gonna be a problem to solve later I think, internally sighing. Before the moment can get anymore mushy, we notice some of the Atlas combat droids acting strange. They've stopped shooting... and now they're changing color… and now they're pointing guns at us! This isn't good.

"Well, looks like the moment's been ruined and it's back to fighting." I say smiling, slamming my fists together.

"Let's do this! Team RWBY assemble!" We all just look at Ruby. "Sorry, I've been reading Avengers comics, just get them." She says sheepishly.

"Now that's more my style" I say with a huge smile as I begin to rush the combat droids. _This is gonna be fun._

 **Ruby's POV**

"That was so awesome. We just took down like, an army of droids right now. They had guns and everything and we just took them down and-"

"Ruby." Weiss says with a look that says _stop being such a nerd._

"Heh, sorry." I smile blushing. God, Weiss can always make me feel so nervous. This… thing was interrupted by a huge Atlas robot dropping down from seemingly nowhere. "Oh come on!" I yell, although most would argue it was more of a whine. "Well, time to get to work." I say preparing for another fight, extending Crescent Rose to its full intimidating form… when the robot gets thrown against the wall behind us. We're all very confused, especially when we look back and see some random guy standing there with these huge gauntlets. I become even more confused when the gauntlets just disappear.

"Oh hi there! How are you all doing?" He smiles at us. I just keep getting more confused by the second.

"Um excuse me, who are you?" I ask, showing my confusion in my voice.

"Oh sorry, my name is Hunter Jagim. I saw the fire and I knew that this was Beacon, so I decided to help out. Oh, excuse me one second." He says before he summons two pistols with knives on them, much like Ren's pistols. Then he throws one of them past us and the next thing I know, he's just there. _Does he have teleportation? Who is this guy? Wait, when did the robot get back up?_ So many questions are going through my mind right now. Now he's shooting at the robot… now he's stabbing it and cutting it apart. We're all so confused and shocked, none of us even help him, and it seems that he doesn't need it. "Alright, now that that's dealt with, may I ask who all of you are?" He questions kindly and steadily, not even out of breath.

I clear my throat. Since I'm the team leader, I guess I should introduce us. "Um, well, this is team RWBY. I'm Ruby Rose, the fearless leader." I hear Weiss snicker. "What are you snickering about?"

"Oh come on. "fearless" leader? Last week, when we were watching TV, you screamed and ran in the bathroom when you saw a goose." She says laughing

"Gooses are absolutely terrifying and you know it." I try to defend

"The plural form is geese, not gooses." She retorts

"… shut up." I whisper back. Once our little argument was over, I hear Hunter laughing like no tomorrow. "What's so funny?" I ask, slightly annoyed that I'm missing some joke.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Just you two, haha, it's cute." He says, trying to catch his breath. So me and Weiss arguing makes him lose his breath but fighting a huge deadly robot doesn't? Wait, what did he just say? Did he call us cute? Well crap, now I'm blushing. "Anyways, would you like to continue introducing team… RWBY was it?"

"Um yeah. Anyways, The one I was just arguing with is Weiss Schnee, the heire-" I begin only to get cut off.

"Yes, I know who she is. Heiress to the Schnee Dust company, very famous and all that."

"Ok, well this is Blake Belladonna, she's a little quiet and mysterious at first, but she's awesome when you get to know her."

"Yeah, well that's very common with faunus. Very quiet but have a big personality when you get close."

We all gasp. How did he know? "How do you know that?!" Blake demands.

"Just because you have a bow over your ears doesn't mean I can't see when they twitch and move." He smirks and chuckles a bit. Well isn't this guy just a bunch of surprises?

"J-Just don't tell anyone, ok?" Blake asks, nervously

"Alright, you have my word. I will not mention it to anyone." He smiles

I clear my throat "Anyways, last but not least is my big sister, Yang Xiao Long. She's a little hot-headed so don't get her mad. Oh, and never do anything to her hair."

"Wasn't exactly planning on it, but good to know. Well, this is a very interesting team you've got here, but I can tell that you work together very well as a team. Anyways, what exactly is going on here? Why is Beacon being att- ahhhhh!" Out of nowhere, another one of those robots punches Hunter through two of the columns. Once he gets up, he… starts laughing? "hahahahaha, that actually kinda hurt! Whoo, nice job!" The robot starts running at him. "Big mistake." He says seriously. At the last second, right before the robot was about to punch him again, he summoned a huge katana, taller than him, and teleported above the robot. He then came down with a yell, slicing the robot directly in half. He starts running back to us "Whoo, that was kinda fun! Anyways, as I was saying. What the hell is going on?!"

"We still don't know" I say, slightly stuttering from the shock of what just happened. I hear one of the Atlas ships above us "But I know that the person behind it is on that ship." I say as I look up.

Hunter looks up as well "Well then we should go up there and handle it. Come on Ruby." He begins to grabs my arm.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asks with concern.

"My warping ability, or teleportation as many people call it, can handle up to 2 people including myself, but 2 people only. I guess I should ask though. Ruby, do you want to go up there or do you think one of your teammates would be better suited for the job?" he asks me, curious as to how I'll answer.

I think about it for a little while, going through the options, but I can't make a decision. "I-I'm not sure."

"Then ask them." He says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?" I ask, confused once again because of this guy.

"Ask them who they think should go up there with me. Just, make the decision quickly, we don't have much more time."

I nod and head back to my team. "Guys, I wanted to ask you, who do you think should go up on that ship?" I ask truly unsure

They all looked at each other before Weiss spoke up "Even though I would rather you not go up there with this guy we just met, you would be most suited for the situation. Just be careful."

"I will, thanks." I nod at them. We all hug, just in case… something bad happens, but I think all the bad things that could happen are behind us.

As I walk away, Yang yells "You better make sure she doesn't get hurt Hunter!" I'm a little embarrassed about my sister's over-protectiveness, but I know she loves me and that's why she worries.

"Don't worry, I'll protect her!" Hunter yells back. Once I get to him, he asks "Are you ready? The first time warping is a bit of a doozy." I get a little nervous at that, but nod yes. He takes my arm and pulls me close, a bit too close, but whatever, and summons his pistols. He's gotta teach me that someday. He throws one of them up and all of a sudden, we're on the ship. Oh God. He wasn't kidding when he said it was a doozy.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Ch. 3**_

 **Hunter's POV**

This is certainly one of the most interesting group of friends I've ever seen. I had no idea I'd get involved with a team when I decided to help Beacon, but it happened. Sure, they're pretty young and seem to be inexperienced, but they have a lot of talent and work together amazingly

"You better make sure she doesn't get hurt Hunter!" Yang yells at me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Don't worry, I'll protect her!" I respond. Though, I couldn't help noticing the glare Weiss gave me when I said that. I was confused at first, but then it clicked and made sense. Just to make sure, I decided to test something. "Are you ready? The first time warping is a bit of a doozy" she nods at me, so I grab her by her arm and pull her a little closer than necessary, and take a quick glance back at Weiss without her noticing. Yup, there's that evil glare again, tenfold this time. These friends are definitely the most interesting ones I've ever come across. I prepare myself for a more powerful warp than usual, since I have Ruby and it's a pretty long distance as well. I summon one of my favorite weapons, the Sapphire Serpents, and warp up to the ship. As soon as we get up there, Ruby practically collapses, trying to hold down vomit. Surprisingly, she does push it back down and gets back up. She's tough that's for sure.

"Ugh, that was pretty strange. I mean, my semblance makes me go fast enough to look like I'm teleporting, but I've never actually teleported." She says, holding her head and stumbling a bit.

"Yeah, not many have that ability. I remember the first time I warped, I was vomiting for a couple hours. You're pretty tough, I'll give you that." I say, genuinely impressed. Weiss is pretty lucky.

"Uh, thanks." She says, blushing a little bit.

"Eh, no problem. It's the truth. Weiss is pretty luc- gah!" Really, again!? Some dude with orange hair and a hat has a cane pointed at me, the bottom opened up and some smoke coming out of it.

"Sorry to interrupt this tender moment, but I'm rather busy and I've gotta take care of you two." He says smugly. He then points the cane at Ruby and prepares to fire. I summon the Lapis Xanders, two huge gauntlets, and run to Ruby. I cross my arms when I get in front of her, my gauntlets taking the brunt of his… fireball? "Oh come on, can't any of you damn kids just stay down and stop fighting?!"

"Haha, there's no chance that I'm gonna stay down when people need my help. Now, come on, let's do this." I finish looking at Ruby as she gives me a nod. As we fight, I notice this guy is actually really powerful. Very fast and his cane hurts like hell when it hits, but I'm not gonna stop fighting. When we attack from both sides, he dodges and hits us both with his cane, sending us flying back towards the end of the ship.

"Torchwick, why are you doing this?!" Ruby yells in anger. Huh, so his name is Torchwick, good to know.

"You wouldn't understand kid, if I don't do what she asks, she'll do a lot worse than what any one of you could do." He says, with a small hint of fear in his voice. I wonder who "she" is. Must be behind the attack on Beacon, that's for sure.

"Who is she?!" Ruby demands with determination. She's definitely brave as well.

"You're getting too close kid, which means you have to be dealt with." Before I can react, he shoots Ruby, sending her off the ship towards the ground. She was knocked unconscious. I have to help her. I jump down after her, warping to her and grabbing her. To make sure that she doesn't get too hurt, I hug her close, so that I'll take the full force of anything that we hit.

"Ow, ow, ow, oh that hurt, ow." I say as I bounce off the tower a few times. When we start to get closer to the ground, heading towards the courtyard, I notice out of the corner of my eye, one of those huge robots running straight at me. "Ah shi-" I hear, and feel, a resounding crack as it punches me square in my back. I go through a few columns, still holding onto Ruby the whole time. Alright, now you've pissed me off!

 **Weiss's POV**

I can't help it, the jealousy. I know I shouldn't, but he's holding her so close. _We have more important things to worry about right now than my feelings._ I see Hunter warp up to the ship with Ruby in tow. "He's cute, I bet he and my sis would make a cute couple." Yang says, making my blood boil, but I try my best not to freak out. "I bet they're gonna go on a date at a fancy restaurant and then afterwards my sis might finally lose her-"

"SHUT UP!" I yell, not wanting to listen to it anymore.

"What the hell's your problem?" Yang says, her aura flaring up. Usually that would scare me, but right now, I don't care.

"We just met this guy. We don't even know if he's gonna stay or what his intentions are. We can't trust him."

"Listen here Ice bit-"

"No you listen!" My voice rises in anger. "I will not allow Ruby to ever get hurt! Never! Do you want your sister to get hurt?!"

"DON'T YOU DARE ACCUSE ME OF-"

"Um guys, sorry to interrupt, but look." She points up and I follow her finger. Ruby, unmoving and falling.

"NO!" I yell. She can't- I then see Hunter go after her, wrapping her up so he takes any injuries instead of her. As much as I appreciate him doing that, I still get jealous. _I want to wrap around her like that and- No, stop! My feelings aren't important right now._

"Ow, ow, ow, oh that hurt, ow." I hear Hunter saying. God, even in such a dangerous situation, he still doesn't take it as seriously as he should. I then see one of the Atlas robots running at them. _Oh no._ Before we can react, it's right below them, ready to punch. "Ah shi-" we hear before a booming crack resounds throughout Beacon. They go tumbling through a few columns, Hunter hitting each one, protecting Ruby. As soon as they land, Hunter jumps straight up. _What the hell? How can he even be conscious after that?_

I then see his features… changing. His hair, with dark blue at the ends, turns entirely dark blue and his brown eyes turn dark blue as well. He then summons his gauntlets and starts walking towards the robot, with a dangerous look on his face. The robot runs full speed at him, with every intent of destroying him. Yet, he isn't fazed in the slightest, in fact, he gets a little smirk on his face as they go towards each other. "This is gonna be fun." We hear from him. The robot goes to punch him… and Hunter punches its fist straight on with his gauntlets. It stays like that for a second, before the robot's arm crumbles apart. He then jumps on the robot knocking it down and punches it with amazing speed. By the time he's done, there's nothing left of the robot. He then looks back up at the ship "Biggest mistake of your life Torchwick." He then warps back up to the ship. After he warps, I run to Ruby, my heart beating with worry. _Please be ok, Please be ok_ I think with the most concern I've ever had. I finally reach her and cradle her head in my lap.

"Are you ok?! Ruby, answer me!" I raise my voice a little. Still no response. I go to feel for a pulse at her neck. _Thu-thump, thu-thump._ Oh thank God! "Don't ever scare me like that again." I say even though I know she can't hear me. I hug her tightly, almost rivaling Yang's infamous bear hugs.

 **No one POV**

While Weiss went over to check on Ruby, Yang watched as Hunter warped up to the ship. "I wonder what he's gonna do to Torchwick?" she says to no one in particular.

"I don't know, but I can confidently say that Torchwick is definitely gonna regret messing with us." Blake answers, sounding very sure.

"Yeah, you're right. Still, I would love to see it and even join in. I've been wanting to teach Torchwick a lesson for a long time." Yang says, slamming her fists together with a big grin. _No fair Hunter gets to have all the fun._

"I have too. Trust me, that asshat is gonna get what he deserves." Yang's a little surprised by Blake cussing. _I mean, it's not that bad. Still, I've never heard her cuss._ She gasps a little bit. "What?" Blake asks, confused for what seemed like the tenth time that day.

"Blake-y, my kitten, that's a naughty word." Yang says sarcastically. Blake blushes profusely and turns her head to hide it. Luckily, Yang didn't notice and just laughed. She then looks over at Weiss and Ruby. Her aura flares up a bit. Just because Weiss said she'd never hurt Ruby, that doesn't mean I can't worry and even scare her a bit later. They look up when they hear yelling. It seems to be coming from the Atlas ship that Torchwick is on. The remaining conscious members of team RWBY look at each other, all wondering the same thing. _What the hell is Hunter doing to Torchwick?_

 **A few minutes ago**

"Hahahahahaha, stupid kids. They think they can stand against me? Ha, arrogant little children." Torchwick says as he starts back towards the entrance of the ship, still laughing.

"Torchwick!" _The hell?_ Torchwick turns around… only to see the kid that went after " _Little Red"_

"Ah come on! Can't you kids learn your lesson? You're not going to stop me, so you should just give up alr-" Torchwick is interrupted by a gauntleted fist impacting his face. Hunter didn't stop there, Warping back and forth, punching him with nearly full force every time. He then grabs Torchwick by his throat. "Ah, k-kid, s-stop, please." Torchwick barely gets out.

Hunter just grins back "You really think I'm gonna allow you to get away with this? People are dead and if I don't stop you, even more will perish. No, I'm not gonna stop anytime soon!" Hunter yells, anger and venom seeping into his voice. He picks him up even more and slams him down full force against the hull of the ship, leaving a huge dent. "I will make sure you regret all the lives you've taken." He practically whispers, sounding so threatening, it would have an Ursa quaking in fear… which is exactly what Torchwick is doing.

"Oh no." Torchwick says in fear, right before Hunter continues his pummeling. He slams him against the ship a couple more times, making the dent bigger and bigger. He then picks him back up and punches him square in the face, breaking his nose. "AHHHHHHHHH! PLEASE STOP!" Hunter just ignores him and punches him two more times, Torchwick's right eye swelling up. One more time, Hunter punches him, allowing Torchwick to fly across the ship. "Augh, ugh. Ple-Please stop. I'm sorry, ok? I'll tell you whatever you want." Torchwick says, panting and begging.

"It's too late for that!" Kicking him as he yells. "Now, it's time to finish you off." Hunter says, picking Torchwick up by his throat again. He goes over to the edge… and with all of his might, throws Torchwick straight back down towards the ground. He jumps after Torchwick, preparing to finish him off with one final punch from his Lapis Xanders.

As team RWBY were wondering what was happening, they see Torchwick falling off the ship, Hunter going straight after him with his right fist raised. They all watch wordlessly as Torchwick hits the courtyard, making a small crater. They hear Torchwick groan, right before Hunter lands straight on top of him. The impact shoots dirt and rocks up everywhere, obscuring their view of the results. When it clears, they notice the small crater was now a huge one. Hunter stands up and walks out of the crater, stumbling a bit. All of a sudden, he collapses, passing out. Yang and Blake go over to make sure that he isn't hurt. "Hunter, Hunter are you alright?" Yang asks shaking him. She goes behind him and cradles his head in her lap, feeling for a pulse. She breathes a sigh of relief "Oh, good. His pulse is steady. Now to wake him up. Blake, can you get some water from the fountain?" Blake nods and heads over, pulling a water bottle out to fill it up. Once it was filled, she headed back over quickly.

"Here." Yang grabs the water bottle and dumps it out on his face. After a second, they hear a groan.

"Ah, ugh, ow. What the hell happened?" Hunter asks very confused. All he remembered was Ruby being knocked off and then going after her. He then opens his eyes and looks up, noticing lilac eyes. "Oh, hey, what's up Yang? How ya doing?" He asks with a small smirk. Yang begins to chuckle and Hunter joins in. "Ow! Ah, why does my hand hurt?" At that, Yang just laughs even harder. "Seriously, why does my hand hurt?" More laughing. "Are you not going to tell me?" he asks with a hint of a smirk.

"All I'm gonna say is that you're a crazy dude." Yang says, with a huge grin.

"Eh, not the first time I've heard that." He says, grinning as well. He begins to feel something, like someone watching. He looks around, unnoticeably. He catches the evil glare Blake was shooting at him, one that rivalled, if not bested, Weiss's glare from earlier. _Why does she look so angry? Did I do something or- Oh wait. I know what her problem is. Yup, I'm definitely staying around. I wanna see how this plays out._ "Well, I think I'm alright to get up now. Thanks Yang." He says, starting to get up. Yang goes to help him, but he refuses. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I've dealt with stuff like this before." Once he gets up, he begins to grab his wrist, pain becoming clear on his face.

This shakes Blake out of her jealous stupor. "What do you think you're doing?" She asks with concern, some of it forced.

"This isn't over yet. There are still Grimm that need to be taken care of and I'm not just gonna stand by." He says as he starts to breath deeply and quickly. He then squeezes his wrist and pulls it out, then pushes it back in with lightning speed. "AHHHHHHH! GODDAMMIT! Holy shit that hurt!" He yells out in pain. He then looks at his hand and starts to slowly clench, unclench and roll it. "Whoo, been a while since something's hurt like that." He stops and looks at his hand. "Eh, good enough for now. I can fight at least." He says with a smile. He then looks at Blake and Yang… and they're looking at him in complete shock and disbelief.

"Dude… you've gotta teach me that sometime!" Yang yells with her signature grin. Blake looks at her in disbelief and then punches her in the shoulder. "Ow, what? That would be really useful in certain situations." Blake just rolls her eyes.

"Hey guys!" Ruby yells as she walks over, with help from Weiss.

"Hey, you're alright!" Hunter yells in happiness. "Good to know that… whatever happened, wasn't for nothing. Otherwise, I don't think I'd be able to forgi- Ugh." Hunter grunts in surprise as Ruby hugged him. He hesitates at first but returns it. He also takes note of Weiss's icy glare. He mouths to her " _Don't worry, I'm not interested. She's all yours."_ He then winks at her as well. Weiss's glare disappears and is replaced with a blush almost the same color as Ruby's cloak. "Alright that's enough. Don't need to be injured again." He says with a small smirk.

Ruby blushes a light pink. "Heh, sorry." He just smiles as a response.

"It's fine. Now, I have a question… what the hell did I do?" He gestures to all the destruction, including the crater with a barely breathing Torchwick in it.

"I think that's a story for another time. Right now we have some work to do." Weiss responds as she gestures to the Grimm still destroying everything.

"But doesn't he have a right to-" Ruby starts but is cut off by Hunter.

"No, it's fine. Weiss is right, there are much more important things to take care of right now. I'll find out afterwards" He says, flashing his now signature smirk.

"Finally, time to have some fun. Kicking ass and taking names is what I'm best at." Yang says with a smile on her face.

"I do not doubt that in the slightest. You guys ready?" Hunter asks looking at team RWBY.

"For sure. We're ready for anything. Team RWBY, it's time to have some fun!" Ruby says, beaming a huge smile.

Hunter just laughs and nods. "Yeah, this is gonna be fun, that's for sure."

 **On a rooftop nearby**

"Well, guess we should stop them. Come on Emerald." Mercury says, prepared to fight. But Cinder stops him.

"No. Not yet." Cinder says in deep thought.

"What? What are you talking about? Aren't we supposed to deal with any threats the Grimm can't?" Mercury asks, getting a little irritated. He was expecting a fight and so far all he's done is stop some fifteen year old who didn't even have her weapons.

"I know what you were told, but things have changed. This new character, Hunter, has complicated things. _She_ told me that, if anything or anyone unexpected showed up and was an actual threat, then I should consult with her first. Let them deal with the Grimm. We will attack again before they recover. Did you get it all on video Mercury? Including Hunter's semblance?" She asks, already knowing the answer.

"Uh, yes ma'am, I did." Mercury stutters, a little disappointed that they'll have to push this off even further.

"Good, Salem will want to see this." Cinder says ominously and with a small smirk


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Sup Hunters and Huntresses. I'll have A/Ns every now and again, detailing any future plans, upload times and how much attention the story is getting.**_

 _ **So far, the story has 290 views, 2 favorites, and 3 followers. Thank you guys so much for giving this story a chance.**_

 _ **Be prepared for more and more romance :)**_

 _ **Ch. 4**_

 **Two hours later**

"Well, as much fun as this has been, I kinda want to have a break from fighting so many Grimm." Hunter says as he stabs another Ursa with his Sapphire Serpents, ending its life quickly as he shoots it.

"Yeah! I never thought I would say this, but I don't feel like punching anymore." Yang says as her and Blake end a beowolf by shooting it through a few walls.

"Just a little longer guys, there aren't many more!" Ruby yells as she cuts 3 beowolves in half cleanly with Crescent Rose.

"You said that a half an hour ago!" Weiss says, with some irritation, as she freezes an Ursa in place and stabs it through the heart.

"I'm sure this time!" Ruby retorts.

"Didn't you say that 20 minutes ago?!" Hunter yells with a small smirk as he punches an Ursa through a column. No response. As they all fight, they notice the Grimm's numbers start to dwindle, for the first time in two hours. "Just a little longer guys, we're almost done!" Hunter yells to team RWBY. Weiss, Blake and Yang nod and continue fighting.

"Wait, how come you guys believe Hunter but not your brave team leader?!" Ruby asks with a small pout.

"Because he hasn't said it 10 times in the past hour!" Weiss yells back.

"Humph, whatever." Ruby mumbles. They all cut down their final Grimm nearly simultaneously.

"Whoohoo! Hahaha, that was some of the most fun I've had in awhile!" Hunter yells out in joy a couple seconds afterwards.

They look confused, but actually join in after a second. By now, they're used to being confused by Hunter so they've decided to just stop questioning it. Once they stop laughing, Ruby clears her throat and speaks in what started out as a clear voice, but slowly went up in pitch from happiness. "Team RWBY, I have to say I am really proud of you all. We fought for several hours and took down so many Grimm and saved the school and, oh man that was so awesome. Weiss you were freezing them all and it just looked awesome and Blake was going all over the place and…" Ruby continued as the others began to chuckle at Ruby's innocence.

 _Nothing seems to ever keep her down. Wish I was like that._ Hunter thought as some negative doubts started to crowd his mind. The same ones that have been haunting him for years, but he just pushes it back and comes back to reality. _This is supposed to be a happy moment. We did amazing and we should celebrate that._ "…and I was like bam bam and slice and-"

"Ok little sis, we get it. We were awesome." Yang says, cutting her sister off.

"Ooops, was I rambling again?" Ruby asks sheepishly.

"Just a bit." Weiss responds with a smile.

"Oh, sorry." Ruby blushes lightly.

"Well, what should we do now? The Grimm seem to be dealt with and I'm not a hunter, so?" Hunter questions, not knowing anything about the protocol of an attack like this.

"Well, in my leadership classes, Ozpin always said to go back to the courtyard, wait for any teachers to arrive and tell them what you know." Ruby said, not sounding 100% confident.

"Eh, good enough for me. Guess it's onto the courtyard now." Hunter says as he begins to walk in a direction. He then stops and realizes something. "Um, where exactly is the courtyard again?" he asks. They all point to the opposite direction he was going. "Well, that's a little embarrassing." He says as he rubs his neck and blushes a light pink. They all begin to laugh at Hunter's expense. Hunter blushes a bit more, but then joins inl. "Alright, well, since I have such a terrible sense of direction, Ruby, why don't you lead the way?"

"Sure." Ruby says happily, excited to actually lead her team somewhere. Sure, they all know where the courtyard is, but Ruby is still leading them there. "Follow me minions!" Ruby says as she begins to walk towards the courtyard. The rest just share a laugh and follow her.

As they walk towards the courtyard, they all make jokes and laugh, having some fun. They also had the occasional facepalm from Yang's puns.

"Hey Hunter?" Yang looks at Hunter

"Yeah, what's up?" He says very nonchalantly.

"I've been meaning to ask you, why did you blackout and lose your memory after you helped Ruby?" Yang asks, genuinely curious. The other begin to listen in, curious about it as well, but forgot about it until now.

"Ah, well, that's because of my semblance. My semblance isn't like a lot of others'. Some can be fast, some can make copies of themselves, some can have certain immunities, while mine only activates once I'm angered beyond a certain point." Hunter begins to explain, but is interrupted by Blake.

"Wait, isn't that just like your semblance Yang?" She looks over to Yang.

"Yeah, but after seeing him in action with his semblance activated, it's on a different level." Yang says, sounding impressed and a little modest.

"Yeah, well, as I'm sure you noticed, a lot of my features change. All of my hair turns dark blue and my eyes do as well. I also slightly lose control, depending on how angry I get. If you get me angry enough, I'll just be reduced to a Grimm-like creature, snarling and grunting, but that takes a lot. I'm not angered easily. Really, the only things that anger me is racism and somebody hurting my friends, innocent people, or my family. Besides that, I don't really get mad. Oh, one more thing. When my semblance activates, my nerve endings go dormant." Hunter explains.

"Uh, what?" Ruby asks, not knowing what Hunter means.

"Basically, I don't feel pain. Not to say that I won't be injured or feel pain later. As you saw, I will still be injured, but in the moment, I do not feel any pain at all. It allows me to fight until I literally can't fight anymore." Hunter finishes seriously.

"Wow… that is so awesome!" Yang yells. Blake, once again, punches her in the shoulder. "Ow, why are you so punchy today?" Yang asks with a slight pout.

"Yeah, it sounds awesome, but it's also dangerous, both to myself and to whoever pissed me off. I lose control and can't stop myself, so I could seriously hurt myself or an innocent person who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's a burden that I have to deal with and every time I wake up and realize I blacked out, my first thought is if I hurt someone who didn't deserve it." He says in a very serious tone. "Fortunately, I haven't yet, but it's almost inevitable and I know I'm gonna regret it." He finishes sadly, looking down at his feet.

He feels an arm on his shoulder and looks up, only to be met with all of the eyes of team RWBY. They all look at him sadly. "Hey, you don't know that. You could meet someone who's able to calm you down." Yang tells him with a small and hopeful smile.

"I hope so, but we'll see." He responds, returning a smile. "Now stop feeling sad for me and let's make some jokes again." He says chuckling a bit, finishing with his smirk.

They all just start laughing a bit and continue making jokes as they go to the courtyard. When they finally make it, they see all of the other teams of Beacon waiting there. Oobleck and Port are there as well, making sure none of the students are hurt. When the teams of Beacon see RWBY, everyone smiles, happy they're all ok. Team JNPR is the first to come up. "I'm so happy you're all ok. When you didn't make it back, we started to worry, but I knew you guys could handle anything." Jaune finishes with a smile. He then pulls all of team RWBY and JNPR into a group hug, expressing their joy that everyone is ok.

Hunter stays back a bit, not wanting to intrude on this moment between the two teams.

When they separate, Pyrrha takes notice of Hunter. "Um, hi. Who are you exactly?" Pyrrha asks with a smile.

Team RWBY looks at Hunter and realizes that they're the only ones who've met him so far. "Oh yeah, time for introductions. Hunter, this is Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora. Guys, this is Hunter." Ruby introduces with a huge smile.

"Hi, nice to meet you."

"A pleasure"

"Hello Hunter, great to meet you."

"Do you have pancakes?! Do you like pancakes?! Never mind everyone loves pancakes!ILOVEPANCAKES!"

Hunter's a little taken back from Nora, but he begins to laugh. "Of course I love pancakes. Who doesn't?"

"Ha, see, I told you Ren." Ren just rolls his eyes.

"Please, try not to encourage her. It'll just end in disaster." Ren says wearily.

"Yeah, I don't doubt that either." He responds with his smirk.

"So, how did you meet team RWBY?" Jaune asks, very curious.

"Oh, well I kinda saved them from one of those huge robots and-" He begins but is cut off.

"Ha, saved? We could've handled that thing ourselves easily." Weiss argues.

"Ah come on, let me sound like a hero for once." Hunter whines.

"Ok, what happened is that he came in and started fighting the robot and was like _pew pew_ and like _bam bam_ and was stabbing it and-" Ruby starts… but is cut off by her sister.

"No way, he threw that robot around and then he warped and stuff and his semblance activated and-" Yang starts but is also cut off.

"Ok, you know what. It might be best if I explain it, cause I won't embellish anything and I'll start from the beginning." Blake says. The rest of team RWBY nods in agreement.

"Yeah, that might be best." Hunter chuckles a bit and allows Blake to tell the story.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Ch.5**_

"… And that's how we got here." By the time Blake was finished, all the other teams of Beacon were crowded around the fountain, where team RWBY and Hunter were sitting, listening intently to the story.

"Wow, that's amazing" Jaune says at a lost for words

"Definitely!" Nora agrees.

"I must say, I've never heard of such a semblance before. It's simply fascinating and I must study it more. Are you willing to participate in some experiments?" Oobleck asks quickly and with a glint of excitement in his eye.

"Um, maybe another time. I'll let you know." Hunter responds

"Excellent!" Oobleck yells

"I must agree with Professor Oobleck, your semblance is simply fascinating and very rare. I'm impressed" Port says calmly.

"Th-thank you." Hunter stutters. _It's a little overwhelming. All these new people I don't know yet, crowded around me, paying all this attention to me. I'm not really used to it._

"Hahaha!" Yang just starts laughing for no apparent reason. Everybody just looks at her confused.

"What's so funny sis?" Ruby asks, confusion clear on her face.

"Hunter just stuttered. I've never heard him stutter before and he sounded so adorable." Yang says while trying to catch her breath. Team RWBY looks at each other and starts chuckling.

Hunter blushes bright red from Yang's words and being the center of attention once again. When he hears the rest of team RWBY, he feels confused. "Why are you guys laughing now?" Hunter demands, still blushing.

"She's got a point. Throughout these few hours, you've never stuttered once. This whole time you've stayed composed, and yet, a compliment from Professor Port is what makes you stutter? It's pretty funny." Weiss answers, with a smile on her face.

"Well, I'm not really used to compliments." Hunter begins to defend himself, but stops. "It is actually pretty funny though." Hunter starts laughing as well. "I can handle bones breaking, dozens of Grimm and a conspiracy to attack Beacon and take it down from the inside, but I can't handle a simple compliment." He starts laughing more, as does team RWBY. Even though they haven't known Hunter for as long as team RWBY, which isn't very long anyways, it's funny for the rest of the teams and they begin laughing as well. _This is nice. Not worrying about the Grimm or any attacks. Just… laughing and being happy._ Hunter thinks with a smile.

"Oh, that reminds me. How is your arm?" Blake asks.

"Eh, if I wasn't using some of my aura to dull the pain, it'd hurt like hell. It still hurts even with my aura." Hunter replies, trying to not move his right arm around too much.

"Let me take a look at it." Pyrrha says, being experienced in arm injuries. She's used her shield to block extremely powerful attacks, many times resulting in her arm being broken. Hunter nods and presents it to her. She takes it in her hand and carefully examines it. "Now, you said you're using your aura to dull the pain, correct?" Hunter nods. "Ok, well I would like you to stop and tell me your pain levels." Hunter nods and prepares for what's gonna feel like hell.

"Ahhh!" Hunter disables his aura and immediately feels the pain in his arm. "Goddammit, that hurts like hell!" Hunter says in clear pain, gritting his teeth.

"I know, but I have to gauge your pain and see where it hurts most so that I know what's wrong." Pyrrha tries to explain.

"Yeah, yeah I know. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt though." Hunter says, flashing a small smirk to make sure Pyrrha doesn't feel bad. He notices Jaune out of the corner of his eye. He's hiding it well, but Jaune is jealous that Pyrrha is paying so close attention to Hunter. He has a very small frown and the tiniest narrow in his eyes, but Hunter has been trained to notice small things and sees it. _I swear, they should call Beacon "The Romance Tower"_ "So" Pyrrha looks up at him "How long have you two been together?" He questions, nodding his head towards Jaune. When they look at each other, Jaune and Pyrrha both look like tomatoes almost instantly and look away.

"U-um, We-We're not to-together." Jaune stutters out, obviously very embarrassed.

"Really? Hmm, I'm surprised." Hunter finishes, not wishing to embarrass them even more.

After about 10 minutes of Pyrrha looking at Hunter's arm and the rest making jokes, Pyrrha is finally finished. "Alright there you go. It'll last you until we can get you to a real hospital, but that may not be for a while." She grins at him, happy she could help someone out. He looks at his arm, a quick little cast made up of bandages and sticks adorning it.

"Alright, thanks. From what you saw, how long do you think until I'll fully recover?" he asks steadily.

"I'm not sure exactly, but I'd say at least a couple months until you can start fighting again." Pyrrha says, emphasizing "at least"

"Wow, I wasn't expecting it to be so long." Hunter says, still calm.

"Well, you said you fought Grimm for nearly two hours straight. Such a long time of fighting with an injured arm does some serious damage." Pyrrha says, explaining why.

"Yeah, I kinda figured it'd be a bad idea to fight with an injured arm, but I couldn't stand by when people needed my help. At least I didn't do any permanent damage… I didn't do any permanent damage, right?" Hunter asks worriedly.

"Not that I can tell. You're lucky though, with everything you did, there should be some permanent damage." Pyrrha says with a slightly disappointed look.

"Sorry mom." Hunter says sarcastically. They all have a small laugh at that. "So, tell me again, who are we waiting for?"

"Professor Ozpin." Ruby answers. "He's the headmaster of the school. He should be here pretty soon actually." Ruby says looking around.

 _Ozpin, Ozpin? That name sounds so familiar. Where is it from?_ Hunter begins to go in deep thought trying to remember where he heard it from, but before he can, Ozpin comes walking into the courtyard, leaning on his cane more than normal. "Sorry I was late, ran into some trouble along the way." Ozpin says with a small smile. He then looks at Hunter and his eyes widen the most any of the others had ever seen. "You, I know you. Your eyes and hair, I know them from somewhere." He points at Hunter.

"S-Sorry but I don't think I know you." Hunter says with confusion.

Then Ozpin snaps his fingers "Ah yes, now I know. I knew your father when he was training here to become a Hunter." Ozpin says.

"Wait, his father was a hunter?" Ruby asks.

"Yes, a great one in fact. He had such amazing talent, if a bit stubborn sometimes. If anyone ever needed help, you could bet that he was gonna be there, no matter what I told him. After a while, it got to the point where I just stopped fighting him and let him help. He could handle himself fine when he first came to Beacon and when he graduated, almost no one could beat him." His eyes then look down, sadness becoming clear. "When I heard of Eric's death, I was heartbroken to lose one of my most talented and pure-hearted students… as well as a great friend."

All but Hunter and Ozpin gasp. None of them knew his father was a hunter, that he was dead…, or that Ozpin knew him. "Ya know, when I heard them say to wait for Professor Ozpin" Hunter gestures to team RWBY "I thought your name sounded familiar. You were there, when my mom and I were told my father died. You actually delivered the news. I remember your voice." Hunter says with a tiny chuckle.

"Yes, I did. I'm surprised you remember, you were so young." Ozpin says with some curiosity.

"Yeah, well, you remember how my dad was." Hunter says with a knowing look pointed at Ozpin, smiling.

"Yeah I do. Always so observant, noticing the smallest things. The second to last time I spoke with him, he told me that he was teaching you to be the same way. Putting you through brain exercises and tests to make sure that you would never be ignorant." Ozpin says with a slightly sad smile.

"So that's how you knew about my ears." Blake whispers, leaning close to Hunter.

"Well, it certainly made it easier, but if anyone actually pays some attention, a bow shouldn't move like that if there's nothing under it." Hunter whispers back.

"What are you guys whispering about?" Yang joins in, whispering as well. Blake just rolls her eyes. "Oh come on, tell me." Yang practically whines.

"Later." Blake says.

"Hmmph, fine. But just because you won't tell me, I'm gonna keep interrupting your reading time for the rest of the week." Yang says, challenging Blake.

Blake leans close to Yang, making sure no one hears. "I'll let you pet my ears."

"For a week."

"For the weekend."

"Until next Wednesday, including the weekend."

"…Fine" Blake says in defeat.

"Awesome!" Yang practically yells, attracting everyone's attention. They both blush a little bit as the others just laugh and continue doing whatever they were doing.

"Anyway, Ozpin" Hunter says attracting Ozpin's attention. "What should we do now?"

"I suppose since all the Grimm seem to be dealt with, those who aren't injured need to help in rebuilding. I believe Professor Goodwitch and General Ironwood are already working on it. They're in the main square, where all the shops are." Ozpin says with authority.

As the teams start to get up, Hunter tries to as well, intent on helping. "Whoa whoa whoa, what do you think you're doing?" Pyrrha asks with concern.

Hunter just looks at her confused. "I'm gonna help of course."

"Um, no you're not."

"Absolutely not."

"Are you stupid?"

"I said those who aren't injured."

One after another, almost everyone tells Hunter no. "Oh come on, sure my arm's hurt but I can still help." Hunter tries to retort.

"No way, you need to rest. After everything you've gone through today, with your semblance and your arm, you need to get some sleep. Here, I'll show you to our dorm room." Ruby offers

"Alright fine fine, I'll rest up." Hunter says giving in. He'd never admit it at the time, but he felt exhausted and did want to rest. "Wait, I need to tell my mom where I am. She's probably worried sick and we had a promi-"

"I'll go there and tell her everything that happened. She knows and trusts me, don't worry." Ozpin tells Hunter with a smile. Hunter almost disagrees but his exhaustion hits him with full force, causing him to yawn. Everybody laughs a bit at that.

"Alright fine. Ruby, you were gonna show me to the dorms?" Hunter reminds her.

"Yup, follow me." Ruby says with her normal, everyday grin, skipping off.

Hunter looks at the still present members of team RWBY and gestures to Ruby in confusion "Doesn't she ever get tired?"

"Nope."

"Never."

"Not even close."

Hunter just smirks and follows Ruby back to the dorm. "Well then, this has been an… interesting day, to say the least." Weiss says, chuckling at the events that transpired over the day.

"To say the least for sure." Yang says with a smile.

"Alright everyone, let's get to work!" Ozpin says seriously, but with a smile on his face as well. _Definitely interesting_ He thinks.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Ch. 6**_

 **Hunter's dream**

 _No. No, no, no, NO! What have I done!? I look all around me. Fire, rubble… and bodies. Dead bodies everywhere. Innocent people. People who didn't deserve this… and it's all my fault. My semblance, I can't control myself and, and… Oh God. I'm a monster!_

" _Hunter, please stop!" I hear Ruby but can't see her. I look all around me, frantically trying to find her voice. When I turn around, she appears in front of me. "Please stop!" She yells at me._

 _What is she talking about? I'm not- No, stop! Please stop she doesn't deserve this! I try to stop myself but I just watch helplessly as I begin to rip her apart, piece by piece. I see blood go everywhere, on the floor, the walls… on me. I can't stop. Her screaming haunts me. NO NO NO NO! PLEASE STOP!_

Hunter wakes up, drenched in sweat and panting heavily. While most would be screaming from such a dream, the only thing coming from Hunter's mouth is vomit. He runs into the bathroom and throws up, disgusted by his dream. _Not the first time I've had that type of dream and certainly won't be the last, but it still disgusts me._ He turns the sink on and washes his mouth out. Once he's done, he looks in the mirror. _It's inevitable. Sooner or later, I'm going to hurt someone I love just because of my goddamn ability!_ Hunter slams his left fist down on the sink. _I'm not a monster yet, but I'm going to turn into one._ He thinks with sadness and self-loathing. Hunter has had this fear for a large portion of his life, having dreams upon dreams about hurting innocents. It started when he was sparring with his father a few weeks before his final mission.

" _Come on Hunter, think. Don't just use brute force; your brain is the most powerful weapon you'll ever have."_

" _I'm trying!" He yells with a strike. His father counters it, knocking him to the ground._

" _Not hard enough."_

That's all he remembered before waking up a couple hours later. His parents told him that his semblance activated for the first time and that he lost control. He broke their sparring sticks and attacked his father like a savage beast, snarling and growling the whole time. Ever since then, he's had a fear of himself and what he might do to those he loves. It's why his semblance doesn't activate when he gets hurt. The only reason his semblance activated earlier was because Ruby got hurt. He walks back into the room, looking at the dangerous tangle of ropes and blankets that Ruby calls a bed. _Hmph, I swear, if I hadn't seen Ruby in action, I'd say she's too naïve to be a leader. But that's definitely not the case. After seeing how she led her team, and me, into battle against the Grimm yesterday, she's definitely cut out for such a position. Wait, what time is it?_ He looks to the clock. **2:47 AM** "Ugh, just great. Only got a couple hours of sleep" He says, remembering that it was about 12:30 when he fell asleep. _Still way too shaken up from the dream to go back to sleep._ _I suppose I could just go for a walk around Beacon and try to clear my mind._ He nods at his own idea and opens the door to RWBY's dorm room.

He walks outside, noticing many of the columns are either back or just completely gone. His crater from fighting Torchwick is still there though. _Oops._ He continues walking around, seeing destruction, but also things already rebuilt. _No matter what, as long as we have determination, humans will always come back, stronger than ever._ He turns down a street… only to run into someone. "Oops, sorry about tha-" Hunter's mouth opens. _Such beauty. Her beautiful dark skin, green hair and… red eyes._

"Um, it's alright. Sorry but I have to go." Emerald says, hurrying away, leaving Hunter there in shock. _Even her voice is perfect._ _I'll have to ask them about her._

He continues walking down the streets of Beacon. He turns down another street and sees team RWBY still rebuilding what they can. He hurries up a bit, happy to be able to talk to someone and maybe even help out, if they'll let him. "Hey guys!" They look at him in shock but also joy.

"Hunter! What are you doing out here?" Ruby asks with a big grin on her face.

"Eh, woke up and couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to take a walk and clear my mind. You guys are still working huh?" He says looking around, seeing all the progress they've made.

"Yeah, we don't want to stop until Beacon is rebuilt." Yang says with her signature grin.

Hunter's eyes widen a bit at that. "Um, don't you think that's a bit ambitious? Sure, you've made a lot of progress but you guys need to sleep. Have you guys taken a break to eat at least?" Hunter asks with some concern. Ruby opens her mouth to respond but is cut off by her stomach growling like an angry beowolf. "I'll take that as a no. Come on, let's go back to the dorm and take a break."

"Bu-" Yang tries to argue.

"No buts. You guys are getting something to eat and that's final. Now follow me." Hunter says with unbreaking confidence and seriousness. They all just look at each other and sigh.

"Fine"

"Alright"

"As long as I get cookies"

Hunter just chuckles at Ruby's terms but nods and heads back to the dorm.

 **A little over an hour later**

"Oh my god, this is so good!" Yang practically moans out as she takes another bite of the meal. Some oatmeal and one of her favorite beverages, Strawberry Sunrise. _I don't even know how he got this in here, but I'm glad he did._ She thinks as she takes another sip.

"Yeah. I have to say, I didn't expect you to be much of a cooker or a baker." Blake says as she eat her seasoned fish, obviously impressed.

"Yeah well, my mom wanted to make sure I knew how to take care of myself when I went out on my own, so she made sure I knew how to cook and bake. She only taught me the basics, but I actually really liked it and learned a lot more as the years went by." Hunter says with a smile as he eats a simple PB & J sandwich.

"I must thank your mother someday. This is on par with the professional chefs that my father hired for me. Almost." Weiss says, impressed with every bite of her "sophisticated meal" as she called it, though she'd never admit she was impressed. She'd only admit that it was good. It had some peppered and seasoned fish, chopped up and sprinkled onto a salad.

"What even are these cookies?!" Ruby practically yells/moans as she takes another bite of the homemade cookies.

"They're called Anzac Biscuits, a traditional snack from New Grimmland. That sweetness is from the coconut." Hunter says with a smile. He was one of the few people in Vale who knows how to make those, his mom being one other.

"YOU ARE MAKING THESE FOR ME EVERY DAY!" Ruby demands.

"Ruby, be a little more respectful, please." Weiss scolds her.

Ruby blushes "Sorry. Hunter, can you please make these for me when I ask?" Ruby asks slower and calmer.

"Yeah, sure. I'm just gonna need a lot of coconut. I put a lot of it in there since I love the sweetness it adds." Hunter says with a smile.

"Thank thou" Ruby mumbles with her mouth full.

"Ruby!" Weiss scolds again.

She quickly chews and swallows it down, almost choking. "So-Sorry." She says coughing a bit.

"What time is it now?" Hunter asks. He looks at the clock **4:45 AM.** "Well, looks like it's time to go to bed now." Hunter finishes with a yawn, causing the girls to yawn as well and realize how tired they are.

"Yeah. I have to admit, this was nice. We should do something like this again." Blake says, yawning like a cat.

"Definitely." Yang agrees.

"… Wait, hold on one second." Weiss says, with suspicion. "You planned this, didn't you?" She points at Hunter. "You planned to distract us long enough for us to get tired and get some sleep, didn't you?"

"Uh, maybe?" He says, shrugging his shoulders. Weiss gives him a pointed look, one eyebrow raised. "Ok, fine. Yes I did plan this, but you guys were working so hard and-"

Weiss raises her hand, signaling for Hunter to stop. "Thank you Hunter. Thank you for helping us out and making sure we're ok and don't overwork ourselves." Weiss finishes with a smile.

Hunter looks shocked at first but then a smile appears on his face. "No problem. Now let's go to bed." They all yawn, each heading to their beds before they realize something.

"Wait, where are you gonna sleep Hunter?" Ruby asks turning around.

"Hmm, didn't think about that. Guess I'll just sleep on the floor." Hunter says with a shrug of his shoulders.

"What, no way. I'm not allowing that after everything you've done for us." Ruby says with determination. "You can sleep on my bed." He looks up at the disaster of a bed.

"Uh, yeah, I'd rather not. Seriously guys, it's fine. I've slept on much more uncomfortable things than a floor." He says with a smirk.

"That doesn't mean you have to." Yang retorts.

"I don't want to intrude." Hunter says, a little quieter than normal. Yang just ignores him and starts pulling the blankets and pillows off the beds. "Um, what are you doing?" She throws them all on the floor, arranging them to make a bed for all 5 of them.

"There we go." Yang says with a smile.

Hunter realizes what she's trying to do. "Oh, no way. I'm not going to let you guys give up your beds just to-" He's cut off by a pillow being thrown at his face from his left. He looks and sees Ruby with a big grin on her face. Before she can react, Hunter throws one right back at her. Before they even know it, they're in an all-out pillow war. Pillows and blankets are thrown everywhere. This goes on for a few minutes, before they all start to yawn again. "Alright, I'm going to bed. Take your blankets and pillows and go back on-" Before he can react, they're all on the makeshift bed of blankets on the floor, already getting comfortable. He becomes a little irritated but it's quickly replaced with a small chuckle and a smirk. _Should've known._ He just gives in and lays down in the only place available, the middle. He lays down, trying to get comfortable with his casted arm; although it's making it a little difficult. Finally, he gets into a comfortable position. "Night guys. And… thank you."

"No problem, night." Ruby responds.

"Night" The rest say one after another.

That was one of the few nights Hunter didn't have a nightmare.

 **The next "morning"**

Hunter wakes up first. For the first time, not only did he not have nightmares but, he even had pleasant dreams. It made him happy. _I wonder if I could stay here._ He thinks with a smile. He starts to get up, but realizes he's kind of restricted. _What?_ He opens his eyes slowly and looks around. Arms and legs are strewn all about. Ruby's leg is over his stomach, Yang's head is on his left arm, one of her arms also holding Blake, Blake's head is resting on Yang's… chest, and Weiss has an arm around Ruby's stomach. _Well then… this is awkward._ He looks up at the clock **12:22 PM** _I've never slept in so late before._ _Eh, I guess it's time to get up. I'm probably gonna have to talk with Professor Ozpin._ He slowly moves Ruby's leg off his stomach, making sure not to wake her. Once her leg is off, he grabs a pillow and puts it under Yang's head as he moves his arm. _Alright, hard part's over. Now just to get up._ He starts to get up slowly, making sure not to disturb the mess of a bed too much. Once he's up, he starts to go to the door.

"Ugh." He hears groaning from the bed. It's coming from Blake. She's waking up. _She probably heard me. Damn her cat ears._ She opens her eyes and looks at Hunter. "Where are you going?" She whispers, making sure not to wake the others.

"I was gonna try and find Ozpin. I gotta find out what's going on with me and my mom." He whispers back.

"Oh, ok." She says, content with his answer.

He goes to the door, ready to leave, but not before deciding to see Blake blush. "Also Blake," She looks up at him. "You may want to look at your pillow." She looks and sees that her "pillow" is actually Yang's impressive chest. She jumps up, her face turning a very bright pink. Hunter just chuckles quietly and leaves. _Now to find Ozpin._ He decides it might be best to just ask someone. He remembered Ruby telling him that the dorm room next to theirs was team JNPR's. He figured they would probably know and decided that that should be his destination. He goes across the hall and knocks on the door.

"Come in!" was the muffled response. He walks in to see all of team JNPR looking like they just woke up. _They probably did._ "Oh, Hunter. Hi, how are you?" Pyrrha asks with a groggy smile.

"I'm good, thanks. How are all of you?"

"Tired" was the simultaneous response.

Hunter just chuckles. "Yeah, I figured you just woke up. I know I did."

"Wow, you must've been really tired to have slept for so long." Jaune says, remembering Hunter went to RWBY's dorm room at about midnight.

"Actually, I woke up at about 3:00 and couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to go for a walk. I ran into RWBY and practically forced them to take a break and eat. After I cooked them some food, we all went to sleep, which was at about 5:00." Hunter says, summarizing the events of last night.

"Oh, that makes more sense then." Jaune says, yawning.

"Did you make pancakes?!" Nora asks, getting excited.

"So, why did you come here?" Ren asks, ignoring Nora.

"Oh, I wanted to ask where I could find Professor Ozpin. I need to talk with him." Hunter says, almost forgetting what he first came in here to do.

"You can find him on the top floor of Beacon Tower. That's where he usually is." Pyrrha answers.

"Ok, thanks." He says with a wave of his hand as he leaves.

"No problem!" Pyrrha says, waving with the rest of her team.

 _I wonder how long they were out there. They seem to be a lot like team RWBY and want to help whenever they can, so I'd wager they were up for a long time last night._ Hunter thinks as he leaves. _I guess I'm on my way to Beacon tower now._ Hunter begins walking through the dorms, seeing multiple people just waking up or still looking tired as they walk around. Hunter was actually one of the few who didn't look tired, even though he really was. He's used to sleepless nights and He learned how to hide it so his mother wouldn't ask why he didn't get enough sleep. He hasn't told her about his daily nightmares; since, he doesn't want to worry her. Once he gets outside, he notices how sunny it is. He's always loved being in the sun; it makes him feel alive and well. _A new day is a new chapter._ His father always said that to him. It basically means that every day brings something new and you shouldn't dwell on the past. He sees the tower, with the courtyard in front. He notices that the crater is gone. _Guess they fixed that last night when we were in the dorm._ He enters the tower and heads towards the elevator. _I hope he is up here. I really don't feel like going on a "journey" to find him._ Hunter thinks as he pushes the button to go to the top floor. It doesn't take long, since the elevator is so fast. When the elevator doors open, Hunter sees Ozpin looking over Beacon. _Oh good, he is here._ He then notices something else. _He's really been relying on that cane since last night. I wonder what happened._ His thoughts are interrupted when Ozpin turns around, only to smile when he sees Hunter.

"Oh, Hunter. I didn't expect you here but it's certainly a pleasant surprise." Ozpin says, going back towards his desk. "If I may ask, why have you come to see me?" Ozpin says with curiosity.

"I wanted to ask about my… situation, I guess. I mean, with my arm how it is, I can't help my mom anymore and she can't live out there by herself. I just need to know what's going on." Hunter says seriously. Sure, he was a jokester and sarcastic normally, but when it came to his family, there was a whole other side to him.

"Ah, I see. Well, I already informed her of your arm and she told me what you just told me now. So I offered for her to be a teacher here at Beacon and for you to join as a student." Ozpin answers, as if it was obvious.

Hunter almost chokes. It wasn't as obvious to him. "Wait wait, wh-what? A-Are you serious?" Hunter asks, completely stunned.

"Yes. In addition, your mother accepted the offer but wanted me to tell you first. She said it's up to you on what you want to do." Ozpin says, going to his normal serious face. _Wow. This is a lot to take in. Do I really want to join Beacon? I mean, what about my old life and with the recent attack, I don't want my mother to get hurt._ "You don't have to answer now." Ozpin says, noticing Hunter's "deep thought" face. "You can think about it for as long as you want. Just make sure you aren't pressured into it by anyone else. Do what you think is best for you and your mother." He adds with a comforting smile.

"Um, th-thank you. This means a lot, but I wanna make sure I'm making the right choice. Is it ok if I stay here until I give you an answer?" Hunter asks, wanting see how the school operates and get some second opinions from his friends. _Wait, friends? Huh, I guess we are friends now. I'm not even in the school yet and I've made some good friends._ Hunter thinks with a small chuckle _And I've kinda gotten involved in some romances as well._

"Of course you can. You can stay here for as long as you like, but I would like an answer soon." Ozpin confirms.

"Of course. I think I should have an answer by next weekend. Would that be alright?" Hunter asks. _It's Friday so that gives me about a week to make a decision. Plenty of time._

"Yes, that is fine. Where are you planning on sleeping?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure. I guess I would like to sleep in RWBY's dorm room." Hunter says after a bit of thought.

Ozpin's eyes widen a bit. "And why would that be?"

"Huh?" He notices the questioning look on Ozpin's face. It clicks and he blushes. "Oh no, it's absolutely nothing like that. They're just already friends of mine and it would make it easier for me." Hunter answers quickly. "I mean, it's not like they swing that way anyway." Hunter says, more to himself than Ozpin, but he still hears.

His eyes widen even more and his head perks up in curiosity. "What does that mean?" Ozpin asks.

"Um, that's not really my business to say. Let's just say, you won't have to worry about me with that type of stuff in the RWBY dorm." Hunter says, emphasizing "me"

It clicks for Ozpin and, for the first time, a small blush appears on his cheeks. He quickly regains his composure "Ah, I see. Well, I would like to talk with team RWBY first and see what they think about it. If they agree, then it'll be fine." Ozpin says with a small smile.

"Ok, that's fine. Can you tell my mom about this conversation? I want to keep her in the loop."

"Yes, of course. I'll personally deliver the message when I have the time." He starts to go towards Hunter, extending his hand when he stops.

Hunter shakes his hand "Ok, thank you again." Hunter responds with a smile.

"it's no problem, really. If you're half as good as your father was when he first began, you'll be a very welcome addition to the hunters of Beacon." Ozpin says with another, bigger smile.

Hunter nods and goes back to the elevator. He pushes the button, but as he's waiting, he remembers something else. "Oh, Ozpin" He turns back around. "I wanted to ask you something else."

"What is it?"

Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night and went for a walk. On my walk, I saw a girl and I was wondering who she was. I didn't see her with everyone else, nor have I seen her today."

"What does she look like?" Ozpin questions, getting curious as well.

"She had green hair, red eyes, and dark skin." Hunter responds, still clearly remembering her. Ozpin's eyes widen again and his mouth opens a bit. Hunter is very curious now "What is it?"

"She was a part of the conspiracy to take down Beacon." Ozpin responds.

Hunter gasps. _Of course the girl I can't get out of my head is a part of an evil cult._ Hunter thinks with a scowl. "Really?" Ozpin nods his head. "Wow, I had no idea; otherwise, I might've stopped her.

"Be glad you didn't. She is very powerful and with your arm, you wouldn't have stood a chance." Ozpin says a little sharply. Hunter goes to disagree but thinks about it. _He's right. I wouldn't have been able to stop her with my injured arm. If anything, I would've just hurt myself even more._

"Thank you." Hunter nods, starting towards the elevator.

"Hunter" He turns back around "take care. The people behind the attack are very powerful and ruthless people. With the show you put on and the fact that you ran into one of them, they may try to target you and your mother." Ozpin warns, with a very serious and worried look on his face.

Hunter is shocked. "W-Why?"

"They may see you as a threat now. With your powerful semblance and your tendency to be too observant for your own good, they may become afraid you'll figure something out that you're not supposed to. Now, this is no guarantee, but I want you to be careful and watch your back, just in case." Ozpin says with care in his voice.

"I will." Hunter says with clear determination and no fear.

"Good. Now, have a great afternoon." Ozpin says with a smile.

"You too." Hunter goes back towards the elevator and enters it when the doors open. He pushes the button to the lobby, going into deep thought. _I can't believe that I actually might be a threat to these evil people. Well, if they think they're gonna hurt my mother, they've got another thing coming._ Hunter thinks with determination clear on his face as he exits the elevator.

 **Right after Hunter left the dorm.**

After Hunter left, Blake still had a huge blush on her face. She tried to get up, but realized there was a strong arm holding her down. She realizes that Yang had her arm around her all night, almost looking like a couple. She blushes even more at the thought of that. Luckily, she can be very quiet. She begins to move Yang's arm off of her slowly, making sure not to wake her. Once she's free of Yang's bear cuddle, she decides to go in the bathroom for a shower. As she walks by, she notices what time it is. **12:27 PM** She releases a small quiet gasp. _I've never woken up so late before. Although, we were up until like 5 in the morning and we worked hard all day so I guess it's understandable._ She looks back over to the bed and notices something that needs to be changed so no one dies, from either embarrassment or Yang's wrath. She sees the "Ice Queen's" arm around Ruby, holding her close from behind. _As cute as that is, I'd rather Yang not wake up on the wrong side of the bed._ She goes over to Weiss and tries to shake her awake. "Weiss? Weiss?" She whispers.

Eventually, she hears groaning. "Ugh, just five more minutes Winter and then I'll spar, I promise." Weiss responds, still sleepy. Blake shakes her a couple more times. "Hmm?" She finally opens her eyes and sees Blake. "What is it?"

Blake realizes that she is about to embarrass Weiss really bad right now… and she's gonna enjoy it. _What? Just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I can't enjoy teasing some people. Especially the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company._ "Um, you may wanna relocate your arm so Yang doesn't break it." Blake whispers with a small smirk. Weiss then looks over and sees that her arm is around Ruby. She blushes profusely, moving her arm away from that position; although she didn't really want to.

"Th-thanks Blake. I'd really rather not be on Yang's bad side again." Weiss says.

"No problem," She responds with a smile.

Weiss then looks around. Confusion becomes clear on her face. "Where's Hunter?" She asks Blake.

"Went to talk to Ozpin about his mother." She looks at her, some confusion still present on her face. Blake just responds with a small shrug. "I'm going in the shower."

"Ok." Weiss responds with a yawn. She gets up a couple moments after Blake goes in the bathroom. _I really gotta thank her someday for warning me._ She looks at Ruby. A smile becomes present on her face. _She's so cute when she's sleeping._ When she realizes what her thoughts were, her face goes red. She tries to change the topic that her mind is currently thinking about… thoroughly. _Why am I not hungry? I'm usually pretty hungry when I-_ She then remembers the events of last night. _Oh yeah, that's probably why. I never would've thought Hunter could cook. Especially with his… aggressive semblance and everything. That reminds me, I wanna ask about his semblance in more detail. I want to document it for later in case he stays here, maybe even try to help him stay in control. If it's possible, team RWBY could definitely do it._ Weiss thinks with a proud smile.

"Why are you smiling? It's too early to be smiling." Yang asks groggily.

Weiss jumps. _When did she get up? And how did I not notice?_ "No reason." She responds. "And it's not early."

"What?" Yang looks at the clock **12:35 PM** "Wow, it's pretty late."

"Yeah." Weiss agrees.

Blake then gets out of the shower, not surprised to see that Ruby is the only one not up yet. "Me next!" Weiss yells already running in the bathroom, wanting to clean herself off from the battles last night… and take a cold shower from being so close to Ruby. When she turns the water on, she notices it was already cold. _Why did Blake take a cold show-_ She then remembers that Blake laid on Yang's side last night. _Looks like she was in the same situation as me._ Weiss thinks with a smirk and a small blush. She feels the cold water taking away some of her heat, but not enough. _I've never been around her like that._ _I mean, sure we've slept in close proximity and even on the same bed, but we were always on opposite sides, not getting close. That was a completely different story this morning. I was holding her like… a lover would._ She blushes, but continues thinking. _Like a lover._ Her hand slowly goes further down, her blush intensifying. _She's so beautiful and innocent. I wonder how she would be in-_

"Hey, don't take all day in there Weiss! I gotta get clean too!" Yang yells with a bang on the door. Weiss's hand shoots back up, her blush intensifying tenfold. _I can't believe I almost did that, thinking about Ruby no less._ She tries to compose herself as best she can, turning off the water. She wraps a towel around herself and walks out of the bathroom. A blush is still there, but it's barely noticeable to anyone. Well anyone who doesn't have cat eyes or been trained to make observations. "Finally!" Yang goes in, turning the shower on. Weiss begins to get dressed in her normal attire with her combat skirt. When she's finished, she sees Blake with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"So, why were you blushing when you came out?" Blake questions, already knowing the answer.

"That is none of your business!" Weiss yells trying to sound mad, but is betrayed by the growing blush on her cheeks. Blake just smirks at her with a pointed look. "… Shut up." Weiss says quietly. "And why did you take a cold shower, Blake?" Blake blushes as much as Weiss. "Ha, that's what I thought!" Weiss says with victory.

"Ugh, guys shut up, I'm trying to sleep." Ruby starts to wake up.

"Come on Ruby, wake up, it's really late now." Weiss says, crouching down and trying to shake Ruby awake.

"Hmm just five more minutes with Mr. Cuddles" _What is she talking abou- Whoa!_ Next thing Weiss knows, Ruby has her in a death grip, holding her like a stuffed animal. _As much as I'm loving this, I really don't wanna take another cold shower or be pulverized by Yang._ Blake starts snickering and Weiss shoot her a glare that lives up to her nickname. Blake stops. "Ruby, I am not a stuffed animal, let me go." Weiss says trying to wake her up with her "Ice" voice, as Yang had called it once.

"What?" Ruby opens her eyes to see that she's holding Weiss like her old teddy bear. She immediately blushes and jumps up. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry Weiss. I was so tired I didn't know what I was doing and-"

Weiss puts her hand up to stop Ruby's rambling… and to stop her blush from growing because of how cute Ruby is when she's nervous. "It's fine Ruby." Weiss says with a faint blush still present.

Yang walks out of the bathroom… with absolutely nothing covering her up. "Sis! Put something on!" Ruby yells at her.

"Why does it matter?" Yang says confused. "We're all girls."

"Yeah but Hunter could get back anytime." Weiss explains.

A small blush appears on her face. "Oh yeah. Whoops." Yang jumps around the room, trying to get dressed quickly. None of them noticed how Blake was reacting since she was so good at hiding it. On the outside, she had her normal face but on the inside, she was absolutely freaking out. _Oh my God, Oh my GOD! I've seen her naked but she's jumping around and it's making them bounce and…_ She felt like she was about to faint. She gets dressed rather quickly, Blake still having an internal breakdown. Yang notices the blank look on her face. "Blake?" No response. "Blake?!" She says a little louder. Still no response. "BLAKE?!"

She jumps back. "What?"

"Are you alright? You looked like you were about to faint. What, was my body too much for you to handle?" Yang finishes with a smirk, posing. To everyone else, it seemed like any other Yang joke, but for Yang, she secretly hoped that it was her body that made the calm Blake lose her cool.

Blake faintly blushes. "I was just thinking." Blake responds a little too quickly for Yang to believe her. After all, they are partners and have to spend quite a bit of time together, so Yang knows how Blake responds. Right now, she was trying to hide something.

"Ok." Yang says, making it clear with her voice that she didn't believe her. When she turned around to grab her tablet off the desk, she made sure to sway her hips again.

"Alright, well I'm going in the shower." Ruby says. When she gets in, she notices the water is cold. _Did everyone take a cold shower or something?_ She thinks as she turns it to hot.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Ch. 7**_

A little after Ruby gets in her long shower, Hunter comes back in the room. "Hey. How'd the talk with Ozpin go?" She asks with curiosity. She still didn't know why he had to talk with the headmaster.

"Rather interesting." He answers in obvious deep thought.

"What's up? You're thinking even more than Ruby when she has to answer a math question." Yang says with a small chuckle.

"Nothing, I'll tell you in a sec. Right now, I'm judging from the lack of a fire or any food, nobody's cooked yet." Hunter says, making his usual observations.

They nod as Ruby comes out in her usual attire. "Oh, hey Hunter. When'd you get here?" She asks curiously.

"Just a few moments ago. I was gonna cook some breakfast, You want some?" Ruby opens her mouth to respond, but is cut off by her stomach. He chuckles a bit "I'll take that as a yes. So, let's go to the kitchen." He says, but then realizes something else. "Um, where is the kitchen again?"

"Isn't that where you cooked last night?" Weiss asks as she finds it hard to believe somebody who notices all these little things forgets something so simple.

He blushes a bit. "I'm really bad with directions. It was the one thing that my dad couldn't improve." He says remembering all the times his father would try to improve his sense of direction… only for it to ultimately fail in the end. One time, his father told him to take them out in the middle of the forest and that he was gonna blindfold himself. He thought if Hunter would have to know where to go for the sake of someone else, he'd be able to do it… he was wrong. It took them 4 and a half hours to get back home, starving and thirsty. Even then, his father kept trying and never got angry.

"Follow me." Weiss says as she goes towards the door.

"You know where?" Hunter asks a little shocked.

"Yes, I've cooked before." Weiss says acting proud.

"Hahaha, yeah you've cooked, and you failed miserably!" Yang says laughing at the memory and the growing blush on Weiss's cheeks.

"Shut up brute!" Weiss says, sounding cold but with a hint of playfulness as well. "Just follow me."

"Make sure you leave the cooking to Hunter!" Yang says laughing.

"Just lead the way Weiss." Hunter says, still chuckling and shaking his head from Yang's teasing.

"Ok." Weiss says, with a faint blush still present and shooting Yang an icy glare. As they start walking, there's a silence between the group. Not an awkward silence, but a comfortable one. After a few minutes, Weiss breaks it. "Oh, Hunter. I wanted to ask you something. I was wondering if I could question you sometime about your semblance and document it."

This surprises Hunter a bit. "Um, why exactly do you want to do that?"

"Well, your semblance is very interesting and I want to understand it better. I also wanted to experiment if there was a way to calm you down so you don't lose control, maybe even retain control with your semblance fully active. Trust me, if there's anyone that could find out, it'd be us." Weiss explains with a proud smile at the end.

Ruby smiles at the last bit. "Wow, Weiss Schnee actually giving credit to the whole team? What have you done with the Ice Queen?" Ruby tries to have serious face, but breaks out in a small laugh.

"Ha ha." Weiss says with a roll of her eyes. She then looks at Hunter. "Anyways, what do you say?"

"Well, I'll have to think about it."

"That's fine. Take as long as you want." She says with a bright smile pointed towards Hunter. He smiles back. **Thud.** Hunter turns around to see Jaune on the ground, Nora laughing her ass off.

"How did you fall?! There was literally nothing there!"

"The carpet was uneven!" Jaune tries to defend himself. Hunter just chuckles and turns back around.

When he turns, he notices a sour look on Ruby's face. _What's her problem? I don't think I've ever seen her like this._ He leans over. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Ruby looks at him confused, before a split second of realization becomes clear. A small blush then replaces it. She begins to ramble quickly. "Oh, nothing's wrong, why would anything be wrong? Ididn'thaveamadfacewhatareyoutalkingabout? Iwasn'tjealous, I'm just tired and hungry." She says it all too quickly for any normal person to decipher what was said… but Hunter's not exactly normal.

He adorns his signature smirk. "And why exactly would you be jealous?" He whispers.

Ruby becomes flustered and has a bright pink blush. "U-uh, wha-what ar-are you talking about? I-I didn't say that?" He just smirks a little more and shoots her a knowing look. "Ok fine, maybe I was, but I am not telling you why." Ruby admits with determination at the end.

Hunter puts up his hands. "Alright fine, don't tell me." He then leans in a little closer. "Just know, I'll probably find out." He whispers with a smirk. Ruby just shoots him a glare that would make the "Ice Queen" proud. That takes Hunter by surprise and he backs up a little with some fear present on his face. "Please don't kill me." He practically whines out.

"So you can deal with fighting with a broken arm against dozens of Grimm for two hours straight with absolutely no fear at all; yet my glare has you begging for mercy?"

He thinks about it for a second. "Yup." He then laughs a small bit, Ruby joining in.

"What are you guys laughing about back there?" Weiss questions.

"I'm not sure if you guys knew this, but this little Rose can be quite thorny sometimes." Hunter says, taking a page out of Yang's book of terrible puns. Yang starts laughing like a mad man, while the rest facepalm, not believing that Hunter would make such a terrible joke.

"Oh God, please not another one who makes puns." Blake says, already imagining all the torture that's gonna come from the two in the future.

"Hey, my puns are great and you know it." Yang says, truly believing it.

"Look, let's just move on. What did you even mean by that Hunter?" Weiss questions, still not knowing what happened back there.

"I asked her a couple questions and said something that she did not appreciate. So she shot me a glare that rivalled one of yours… It scared me." Hunter admits with some fear still present.

"Wait wait wait" Blake interrupts. "You can handle breaking your arm and then fighting with it for hours afterwards; but a glare from Ruby Rose, of all people, terrifies you?"

"That's what I said." "Yup." They both respond.

Blake just shakes her head. "I just do not understand you Hunter."

"You're not alone there." Weiss says, also shaking her head.

"Yeah, not the first time I've heard that. I barely understand myself half the time." Hunter agrees with them. They all laugh at that.

"Alright, we're here." Weiss says, opening the door to the public kitchen. It's rarely ever used, since most of the students don't cook.

As they walk in, they start to hear a quiet high-pitched whine. "Hey, does anybody hear that?" Yang questions, beginning to look around.

"Yeah, what is that?" Ruby also looking around. It starts to get louder when they realize it's coming from behind them. They all turn around… only to see Hunter with the biggest ear to ear smile on his face.

"Oh my GOD!" He yells, shocking the rest of them. He begins to warp around the room, mumbling as he goes. "They have a Grimmer 2000. Oh and an Atlas 2549 G-M Microwave. Oh my God, they even have a…" The rest of the team just looks at him in shock.

"Um, did any of you ever think he could be like me?" Ruby says, knowing that she fangirls over weapons.

"Nope."

"Nuh-uh."

"We should probably just get used to him surprising us." They all nod at Blake's response, still watching as he bounces all over the kitchen.

"Hey guys!" Jaune yells. "What are you guys doing in he-" When he walks in, he notices Hunter bouncing around like how Ruby does when a new weapon presents itself. "Um, what's going on?"

"I think he loves cooking way too much." Yang answers.

"Well, then he and Ren should get along great." Jaune says, knowing that Ren loves to cook as well. That's actually what they came here to do, eat some breakfast cooked by Ren. The rest of team JNPR walks in, stopping in shock when they see what Hunter is doing.

"What is-" Pyrrha begins

"Apparently, he loves to cook and has never seen such "sophisticated" utensils." Ruby answers immediately.

"But, didn't he cook here last night?" Ren questions confused.

"Yeah." Weiss answers, also confused about that. She decides to stop his "fangirl" moment. She walks over, intent on grabbing him, but she can't catch him with his constant warping. After a few failed attempts, she finally gets irritated. She pulls out Myrtenaster, switching the dust cylinder to ice and freezes Hunter's legs when he stops.

"What the-" He then turns around, as much as he can, and sees both teams looking at him in confusion. He then realizes what he was doing and blushes a little bit. "Oh, oops. That's bit embarrassing. I just haven't seen any expensive cooking appliances for a long time and got super excited I guess." He says rubbing his neck. He then punches the ice around his legs, instantly breaking it. Their eyes just widen even more. "Ah, that's better. Got a little cold in there. Anyways, time to cook." He says, ignoring the looks both teams are giving him and starts to pull out everything he'll need.

Weiss then shakes herself out of her confusion. "Wait, I have a question."

"When do you not?" He interrupts with a small smirk.

She just ignores the interruption. "Didn't you cook here last night?"

"Yeah."

"Then why did you freak out over all the kitchen appliances? Didn't you see them last night?" Then Hunter becomes confused as well.

"Hmm, you're right. I guess I just didn't notice. I had a lot of stuff on my mind and it kinda distracted me." Hunter says, trying to come up with a logical explanation as to why he didn't notice it last night.

"But weren't you trained to make observations since you were young?" Blake says, reminding everyone of that fact. With the way he acted sometimes, it was hard to remember that.

"Yeah, but I had a LOT of stuff on my mind. I was very worried about multiple things, my mom, myself, Beacon, you guys." Hunter explains. "I wasn't as observant as I normally am." He shrugs, continuing to set everything up for breakfast. Everyone seems content with that answer. Ren decides to start setting everything up for himself as well. Hunter looks at him. "So you cook as well?"

"Yup. Every morning, we come down here and I cook breakfast. Eggs and bacon for most of us, as well as a lot of pancakes for Nora." Ren responds, turning a little quieter when he mentions pancakes.

Hunter just chuckles at that. "Yeah, I can imagine it'll be the same way, but cookies for Ruby." He says at the same volume as Ren.

"So, are you staying then?"

Hunter frowns a bit at that. "I… I don't know yet. I was actually gonna talk to them about that when we were eating." Hunter nods towards team RWBY.

"Ok. Well, if it means anything, it would be nice to have someone else around here who can cook." Ren says with a small smile.

"Haha, yeah." Hunter agrees.

"Hey guys." Team JNPR looks at Ren. "Can you guys set up the table for all of us?"

"Yeah sure." Pyrrha answers with her normal helpful attitude.

"We'll help!" Ruby says wanting to help as always.

As team RWBY and JNPR set the table, Ren and Hunter skillfully handle the cooking, going around each other gracefully as if they had been doing this for years. Once the table was set, the two teams decided to sit down and just talk. Every now and again, they'd comment on how good they cooked together and that they looked forward to doing this every morning. After a while, the food was finally done. "Alright everybody, breakfast is served." Hunter says with a smile as both he and Ren serve the food.

"You mean lunch?" Weiss says, remembering it's the afternoon by now. Hunter then chuckles and nods.

There were simple eggs and bacon for most of them, but Nora got some pancakes as well and Ruby got some cookies as a side… even though that's what she started with.

"Ruby, eat your eggs first and then you can have cookies." Weiss scolds.

"Fine mom." Ruby says sarcastically. She then puts down the cookies and begins to eat the eggs and bacon.

About halfway through "lunch", Blake remembers that there was something Hunter wanted to tell them before he cooked them food. "Oh Hunter, wasn't there something you wanted tell us about your talk with Ozpin?" All the others look at Hunter, waiting for him to respond.

"Yes there was. Ozpin said that he offered my mother a job here at Beacon, as a teacher for cooking and other basic life skills." They all gasp a bit. "He also offered me a place here at Beacon, as a student." He finishes, gauging their reactions, which are all almost the same, complete shock.

"Really?" Ruby asks with a big smile.

"Really." He responds, returning a smile.

Ruby jumps up and hugs him tightly. "Oh my God, that's so cool. You're gonna train here with us and-"

"Ruby wait." He cuts her off.

"What do you mean? What's wrong?" She questions with confusion.

"I'm not really sure if I want to stay here yet. It's nothing against you guys" He explains when Ruby looks disheartened. "it was just a lot to take in and think about. Ozpins said I could have a week to think about it and until then, I could stay with you guys." Hunter looks at RWBY seriously. "He also said that if I did decide to stay, I would stay with you until they could find me a team and dorm room. At some point, he is going to call you in and ask you some questions and make sure it's alright with all of you, but I wanted to ask you myself. Is it alright with you? If not, I'll just tell Ozpin now and-"

"Of course it's alright."

"You're awesome and you make puns, you're welcome to the team in my book."

"I do want to research your semblance more, so I do want you around for a little longer." Ruby punches Weiss in the shoulder. "Ow. Ok fine, and you're really cool and it'd be awesome with you around."

"As long as I get some more Anzac Biscuits."

Hunter just chuckles and smiles brightly. _I can't believe I'm accepted so easily._ "Thanks guys, but do you think I really belong here?" Hunter questions, trying to find an excuse for his doubt of staying here.

"Hell yeah you do. Remember what you did last night? You are perfect hunter material and the world needs more people like you." Yang says with a bright smile. Even after that, Hunter still doubts it and this time, they notice it. Yang suddenly turns serious. "Hey, why are you still doubting it?"

"It's just…" **Sigh** "I'm just so afraid of hurting innocent people. I'm so afraid of hurting you guys. I just don't want to-" He's cut off by a group hug from not only team RWBY, but team JNPR as well. He returns the hug, eyes slightly watering.

"We're here for you, and we always will be." Ruby says, tears starting to fall.

"Yeah. We can find a way for you to stay in control. We'll help you." Weiss says, voice breaking a little.

Hunter still doubts it. "Do you know why I woke up last night?" He asks, knowing that they don't. They all look at each other, unsure of what he's going to say. "I had a nightmare. I've had these nightmares before, almost every night for a decade actually." They gasp. "I was looking around me and all I saw was destruction. Fire, rubble… and dead innocent people. Innocent people who didn't deserve it… and I killed them." Everybody's face turns to sadness. "All because of my semblance. I couldn't control myself and killed those I was supposed to protect." They thought that was the end of it, but he continued. "And then, I heard Ruby" He looks up at her with watered eyes, before dropping his head again. "yelling for me to stop. I looked around when she finally appeared in front of me. And then I-I…" Hunter starts to cry. "I started to rip her apart, viciously. I tried to stop, but I couldn't. All I could do was watch." His arms were starting to shake as tears fell. _They'll probably never want to see me again. I wouldn't blame them. They're probably disgusted, I know I am. I bet they're about to leave and-_ His negative thoughts are interrupted by yet another group hug. _What? Why?_ "Wha-What are you guys do-doing? Aren't you disgusted?"

"No. Like we said, we're here to help you, no matter what." Ruby says, now heavily crying.

"Yeah."

"We're here for you."

"We'll always help you."

One after another, both teams express their agreement to help Hunter get over his autophobia and to show him that he is a great person. _God I love these people. I can't believe I have such amazing friends already._ "Thank you guys so much. I think I've made my decision." They separate to look at Hunter. "I'm gonna stay." He declares with happy tears.


	8. Chapter 8

**Ch. 8**

After the revelation that Hunter was truly scared of himself, teams JNPR and RWBY made an agreement to help him any way they could. Afterwards, they finished lunch and went back to their dorms. Hunter left, saying he was going to tell Ozpin about his decision. That just left team RWBY alone with their thoughts in the dorm. "Well, that was surprising." Yang says with a sad chuckle, failing to lighten the mood.

"Yup, definitely." Ruby sighs out. They sat there in silence for a couple minutes, thinking about what he said. "Why do you think I was in his dream?" Ruby questions suddenly. They all look at each other, unsure.

"I have no idea." Blake says, even though she does have one.

Yang sees the chance to embarrass her sister and piss off the Ice Queen. _It's such a perfect opportunity, there's no point in wasting it._ "Maybe you're on his mind quite a bit." Yang says with a wink directed at her sister. This pisses Weiss off immeasurably, but stays quiet so she doesn't risk exposing her crush… to her crush.

Ruby looks at her big sister confused. "What do you mean? Why would I-" She then blushes as she realizes what her sister meant. Her response is actually one that none of them expected. "Do you think so?"

All of their eyes widen at that. She usually just blushes and denies the possibility. None of them knew what she was thinking. _If that's the truth, maybe I could try and get over Weiss. It's obvious that she would never like me the same way, so I should try and move on… and maybe this is my chance to do so._ "Oh ho ho, does my little sis have a crush?" She blushes a little more at that. _Yes… but not on the person you're thinking of._ Blake looks over at Weiss, expecting to see a very mad look on her face, but instead only sees sadness. Weiss walks into the bathroom without saying a word. Right before she went in, Blake saw tears falling from the Ice Queen's eyes.

Blake decides to try and stop this. "Um, I'm not sure. To tell you the truth Ruby, I don't think he likes you like that." She wasn't sure about this. Hell, he could be in love with her and she wouldn't know. _All I know is that this will hurt Weiss if this continues._

"Ah come on Blake. Aren't you a romantic? There's a chance." Yang tries to argue.

"What do you mean 'I'm a romantic'?"

Yang adorns a mischievous smirk. "I've read some of your 'other' books." She winks. Blake just blushes at that.

 **In the bathroom**

Once Weiss closes the bathroom, she begins to sob quietly. _I knew she'd never like me like that. I should've known so I wouldn't be so heartbroken right now. Why did I ever fall in love with her?!_ She slides down the door, tears still falling. " _You can't control love."_ She hears from one of her first real friends. Her butler, Klein. " _It just happens. Sometimes it results in happiness, while other times it results in heartbreak. But, it's not the end." What do you mean? "Even if she does like this boy and does go on a date with him, it doesn't mean they're immediately going to marry and go riding off in the sunset. She could lose interest in him… and become interested in you."_ _Yeah right, this isn't a romance novel. "Stranger things have happened." Like what? "You falling for the lovable little dolt."_ This stops Weiss. _He-I mean- I'm right. If I could've fallen for the little naïve, cookie-loving dolt, then anything can happen._ This makes her much happier. _It's not a guarantee, but it's a chance… I can live with that._ She goes over to the mirror, wiping her eyes and trying to make herself look presentable and hide the fact that she was crying. When she's finished, she looks in the mirror. _I do a pretty good job of cleaning up._ She comes back out, holding herself in a tall and confident manner, the complete opposite of when she went in.

This surprises Blake. No, she didn't expect Weiss to come out in a slumped manner, still crying, but she certainly didn't expect her to come out looking confident and… happy. "Hey, why'd you go in there?" Yang asks with her usual bluntness. Weiss expected this and already came up with an answer. "There were a couple of strands out of place in my hair and my skirt wasn't fitting properly, so I had to fix it."

"Of course, the 'princess' needed to fix such little things. I didn't even notice it." Yang responds.

"You don't notice a lot Yang." Blake says, trying to defend Weiss. "I actually did notice your hair wasn't in the normal place." Of course Blake didn't actually see anything wrong… since there wasn't anything wrong.

"Fine." Yang growls out in defeat. At that moment, Hunter walks back in. As soon as he walks in, he notices a couple of different things. There is a blush on Blake's cheeks. _I wonder what Yang did this time._ He also notices that Weiss's eyes, although well hid, are a little red. _Why was she crying?_ The last thing he notices is the look that Yang's shooting him. A look that says she knows something that he doesn't. _Ok, what the hell happened? I was only gone for like 10 or 15 minutes. Never a dull moment here._ "What's up guys?" Hunter asks with a smile, not addressing the things he noticed.

"Oh nothing much lover boy." Yang says with a smirk. _Alright, now I'm really confused._ Hunter just gets a look of confusion on his face. This makes Yang laugh quite a bit.

"What are you talking about?"

Once she calms down, she looks at him with same smirk as before. "That's for us to know and for you to find out."

Hunter just sighs. "You guys should know by now I probably will find out. Rather easily, I might add." He finishes with a small smile.

They then hear Ozpin's voice over the PA. "Team RWBY, please report to my office. I repeat, team RWBY, please report to my office."

"I guess he wants to ask you some questions." They all nod as the girls go to leave. Weiss is the last one in line to leave, but before she can; Hunter pulls her back in the dorm.

"What are you doing?" She asks.

"I want to know what happened while I was gone." Hunter explains.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Weiss stutters.

He shoots her a pointed look. "Ok, then why were you crying?"

She gasps. She thought she had hidden it so well. _Although, this is Hunter we're talking about. He was trained from a very young age to notice such things._ Then she sighs. "Ok. Yes I was crying, but it's for reasons that I don't think I should tell you."

"What? Why not?" Hunter asks calmly, yet confused.

"Because it was about you." His eyes go wide at that. _Why would she be crying about me?_

He then remembers that he told them about his fears. "Was it about how I'm afraid of myself and my semblance? Because if so, I don't want you to cry about me and-"

He's cut off. "No. It was about you, but not _about_ you." She emphasizes. He looks confused. Weiss feels a little proud that she was able to confuse him like he had done to all of them. "Look, I'm not gonna tell you, but knowing you; you'll probably figure it out soon." She says with a smirk as she leaves. Hunter stands there shocked but his lips quirk upward. _Well, she's right; I'm gonna find out what's going on._


	9. Chapter 9

**Ch. 9**

"Hey, what took you so long?" Ruby questions when Weiss comes running back.

"Hunter wanted to ask me a couple things." She answers without telling what he wanted to talk about.

"About what?" Ruby asks curiously.

Her eyes widen a little bit. _I have to make something up, quick!_ Luckily, Weiss is good at lying believably, but she didn't want to lie to Ruby, especially straight to her face. "Oh, just about classes and stuff, since he'll be staying here."

"Oh, ok." Ruby says, flashing her signature smile. This hurts Weiss and her heart feels heavy. _I just lied straight to the lov- to my crush's face._ She corrects her thoughts. " _You should stop denying it." Oh God, not again._ She thinks, hearing her subconscious again, disguising itself as Klein. " _The longer you deny how you feel about her, the less chance you'll have of actually having her." Shut up! I admit that I have a crush, but it'll pass! I DO NOT LOVE HER!_ She screams inwardly " _Yes you do."_ It's no longer Klein's voice, but her own saying this. This catches her off-guard. _What? N-No I don't_ Her inward confidence is diminishing. " _You should really stop denying your feelings. You've done it for years, about love especially. Remember our first girl crush?"_ Her thoughts went to one of her friends when she was 12. They were best friends for so long, but one time when they were hanging out; Weiss saw her naked by accident. Since then, she couldn't get the girl out of her head. After a while, she began to act cold towards her, trying to deny her feelings. Finally, her friend got fed up and stopped hanging out with her. A few months after that, she moved away. " _Do you want to make that mistake again?" …No. No I don't. But that doesn't mean I have to admit I'm in love with her! "You just did."_ She almost gasps. _I just did, didn't I?_ This revelation starts to make her heart beat faster. She begins to panic. _No, no, no. What is my father going to say? My brother, My sister? "Who cares what father thinks? Our brother would probably support us just because our father would get mad at us. Winter, however, will probably be surprised, but she will accept it." Are you sure? "Are you?"_ She thinks about it for a little while. _Yeah, you're probably right. But I don't know what to do now. Now that I've realized I actually… love that dolt, I don't want to push her away like I did before. "She won't go away. We've already learned that." Yeah, that's true. I just don't know what to do. "You could talk with Hunter." With him?_ She thinks about it for a second. _Well, he does already know I like her._ She thinks, remembering him mouthing that Ruby is all hers and that he's not interested. _And he also approves. He's really good at noticing things and he's pretty easy to talk to. Yeah, I think I should talk with him about it. He'll help me, I'm sure of it._ She nods and walks with confidence now, wanting to get this meeting over with and talk with Hunter privately.

 **In Ozpin's Office**

"Are you sure Hunter can stay with you?"

"Yes."

"Most definitely."

"He's awesome, so yeah."

"He bakes cookies. Of course he can stay."

Ozpin chuckles a bit at Ruby's reasoning for him to stay. "Alright then, it's settled. Until we find him a team of his own, he'll be a part of yours. If he heals before we find him a team, he'll also accompany you on missions and other assignments." Ozpin says with a smile on his face. "Unless you have questions, you are dismissed." The team turns around and walks towards the elevator. "Oh, girls?" They turn back around. "I must warn you, his semblance can make him very… dangerous. Because of this, he has a certain fear and-"

Weiss cuts the headmaster off. "Yes, we know." His eyes widen at that. "He told us this morning. We promised to help him get over his fear, as well as try to find a way for him to stay in control when his semblance activates.

He composes himself as best he can. "Ah, well, good." He then gets a proud and happy look on his face. "Thank you for promising to help him. His mother has told me about many of his problems and I was worried he would have no one… but knowing you girls will be there for him, I'm confident that he'll be fine." They all nod and turn to leave once again. Weiss is the first one in the elevator and the first to get out. The only one to think it's strange is Blake. _Wasn't she just crying not too long ago? And why would she want to see Hunter so soon? If I were in her position, I wouldn't want to see him._ She walks up to Weiss and whispers. "Why are you so eager to get back to the dorm?"

Weiss jumps a little, obviously in deep thought. "Huh? Oh, no reason." Blake doesn't believe her and shoots her a pointed look. She sighs in defeat. "Ok fine." She looks back to make sure the two sister can't hear. "You know how I like Ruby, right?" Blake's eyes go wide. "What, you didn't?"

"No, no I did. I just didn't expect you to admit it anytime soon." Blake explains.

"Yeah, neither did I. Anyways, I want to talk to Hunter."

"Please don't kill him." Blake says calmly.

"What, no. Why would I do that?" Weiss asks confused.

"W-Well, I mean I figured since Ruby is like, I don't know, maybe planning on asking him out, you might hate him."

"Oh, no I'm already over that."

"Alright now you're confusing me just as much as Hunter does. Care to explain?"

"Sure. I'm not worried about whether or not Ruby asks him out, because last night, when she hugged him after his semblance, he noticed me glaring at him and he literally mouthed to me 'Don't worry, I'm not interested. She's all yours.'" Blake's eyes widen at that. Weiss ignores her and continues. "So, the reason why I'm trying to get to the dorm fast is because I want to ask him a couple things."

"Like what?"

"If he can help me try to express my feelings to Ruby. I've had problems with it before and I handled it wrong so she moved away and I don't wanna make that mistake again." Blake's eyes widen a lot. "What?"

"Wait, you've had a crush on a girl before?" Blake asks, picking up on her slip.

Weiss blushes, not believing that she let that slip out. "Yes, I did. I acted cold towards her and she got fed up and left. I really don't wanna make that mistake with Ruby, so I wanted to talk with Hunter about it."

"Hmm, I see. I have a question though." Weiss looks at her. "Why didn't you ask me? I mean, I already knew and I would help you."

"Yeah, I know, but Hunter can notice a lot more than you, no offense."

"None taken. It's true."

"But, if you want to help, you can." Weiss offers.

Blake pretends to think about it for a little while. "Hmm, sure why not."

Weiss smiles at that. "Good. In return, I'll help you with the brute." Blake blushes. Weiss laughs a little bit. "I'm sure Hunter would want to help as well."

"As observant as he is, I doubt he knows about that." Blake says, trying to convince herself more than Weiss.

"He noticed that I was crying earlier."

"Ok fine, maybe he does." Blake admits in defeat.

When they enter the dorm, they notice team JNPR talking to Hunter. They all turn and smile when they see the girls. "Oh hey, what's up? That didn't take very long." Hunter says smiling brightly.

"Eh, he basically just asked us if we wanted you to stay and if you could stay with us." Yang explains.

"Hmm, I expected him to ask more but whatever." Hunter says with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Hey Hunter?" Hunter looks at Weiss. "Can I ask you a couple things about your semblance in private?"

Hunter could tell that they're not going to talk about his semblance and his curiosity gives in. "Sure. Let's go to the kitchen."

Weiss nods and turns to Blake. "Would you like to join us?"

Blake is a little surprised, but doesn't let it show. "Sure." She smiles. They all leave, heading for the kitchen.

When they're in the hallway, Hunter asks "So what did you actually want to talk to me about?"

Weiss isn't fazed. "I'll tell you when we get to the kitchen."

Hunter shrugs. "Alright." They walk down the halls in silence, curiosity brewing in both Blake and Hunter. Neither of them know exactly what Weiss is going to ask. What they don't know is that Weiss doesn't know either. She hadn't planned on exactly what to ask, but she's won't back out now. When they finally reach the kitchen, Weiss checks to make sure no one's in there. _It's empty. Good._ She enters without a word as Blake and Hunter enter behind her. When they're all in, Weiss goes to the door and locks it. _No one else can know about this._ "Alright, now that we're here, what the hell is going on? Why are you being so secretive and quiet?" Hunter asks, a little worried.

Weiss sighs. _I'm actually gonna talk about this with other people. Well, here goes nothing._ "Ok look. You both know that I have a crush on Ruby." Hunter and Blake nods. "Well, after finally admitting it to myself earlier today, I've decided that I want to express my feelings to her, but not right now!" She finishes quickly. "I want to build up to it. Let her know that I'm interested or something like that."

"Ok, then what's the problem?" Hunter asks confused.

"I don't know how!" She answers quickly. Hunter is taken aback. "I don't know how to express my feelings, andI'vebeeninthissituationbeforeandIdon't-"

Hunter grabs her by her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down. "Hey, hey, hey, it's ok. Calm down." Weiss starts to slow her breathing. After a couple minutes, her breathing is almost back to normal. "There we go. Now, you have problems expressing your feelings, correct?" Weiss nods. "What do you mean exactly?" Weiss looks at him confused. "Like, do you mean you have trouble talking about it to her face or just in general?"

She thinks about it. "I have more problems actually talking to her and expressing feelings directly." She explains.

Hunter nods. He paces around, hand on his chin, thinking of a way for Weiss to express her feelings better. "Aha!" Blake and Weiss look at him.

"What?" Blake questions.

"I know what you can do."

"What?" Weiss asks, barely containing her nervousness and excitement.

"It's only a couple months until Christmas, right?" Blake and Weiss nod, not knowing where he's going with this. "Well, a lot of people get presents and gifts around Christmas, even a couple months before, from a secret admirer."

"Ok?" Weiss says, still not getting it.

"Ah, ok. I get it. Do you think she'll go through with it though?" Blake asks Hunter.

"That's up to her."

"Wait, wait. What are you talking about?" Weiss asks.

Hunter sighs. "You can be her secret admirer." Weiss blushes. "In a week or so, you can start leaving gifts for her, saying what you want to say, but only known as a secret admirer. And then, if you're feeling up to it, on Christmas day, you tell her how you feel and that you're the one leaving gifts." Hunter says with a smile.

"What? Blake, tell him he's crazy." Weiss says, not believing the idea. Blake doesn't say anything and Weiss looks at her. "Blake?"

"Weiss, it could work." Weiss looks at her in disbelief. "Look, it's a great way for Ruby to know that someone is very interested in her and she won't know who. Also, it helps you get better at expressing your feelings and getting more comfortable with it so that, when you do tell Ruby, you won't act cold and react badly."

Weiss looks at Hunter and he nods. "It's true. Writing it so many times beforehand makes it easier in person, especially if she sees it." Weiss looks back and forth and then sighs. "Look, you don't have to do it. I just thought it wou-"

"I'll do it." The other two look at her in disbelief. "You guys are right. It lets Ruby know someone is interested and allows me to become more comfortable with my feelings. Knowing me, I'd probably screw it up. Act cold, run away, something like that. By doing this, I can make sure I go through with it and that I don't screw it up."

They both nod. "Ok then, it's settled." Hunter flashes his signature smirk. "So, when are you gonna start? A week, tomorrow, today?" He asks excitedly.

"Um, I'm not sure."

"Well let's get started. I've got the perfect idea. You can try and make a huge poster, telling her that you love her and that she's beautiful and-"

Blake cuts him off before he gets Ruby-level excited. "Hunter?"

"Hmm?"

"Why don't we start out small?"

Hunter looks at Weiss and sees that she's still very nervous. "Oh yeah. That's probably best. Sorry." He apologizes with a sheepish smile.

"It's fine." Weiss assures him with a smile. "I think I should just start out with small stuff. Food, flowers, etc."

"When are you gonna start?" Hunter asks again.

"I don't know. Maybe in a week."

Hunter smiles. "Alright, I'll hold you to that. By next weekend, there better be something for Ruby or I'll do it myself."

Weiss looks at him in confusion. "What do you mean you'll do it yourself?"

"I mean I'll leave some gifts, saying it's from a secret admirer."

"Now hold on." Weiss stands up, anger visibly rising. "Just because I asked you for help doesn't mean that you can just take over and do whatever you want. These are my feelings and this… this is my plan!"

Hunter visibly stands down, making sure not to anger her more. "Ok Weiss. I didn't mean it like that. What I meant was if you backed out and decided not to do it at all, I'd help out. I do care about your feelings Weiss, that's why I said I'll do that. You need to tell Ruby in some way; otherwise, it'll eat you up on the inside. Look, you can take as long as you want, but at some point, you need to tell her."

Weiss's anger level drops a little but she still glares at him. "Weiss, you know he's right. I can tell it's already eaten you up inside quite a lot." Blake looks at Weiss with calmness, but also sympathy.

Weiss thinks about it. _Yeah, they're both right. I've literally argued with a voice in my head because of this. If I don't do something about it, it'll only get worse._ She sighs, visibly calming. "You're right. Hunter, if I do back out, you have my permission to force me into action."

Hunter looks at her wide-eyed and confused. "What do you mean?"

Weiss rolls her eyes. "What I mean is that you have permission to basically force me to be her secret admirer, to leave gifts."

"Why the change?"

"Because knowing me, I might become too nervous and back out and I cannot do that. I feel like I've been going crazy because of all this."

Hunter nods and puts his hand on her shoulder. "It's ok, we're here to help." Weiss nods. "And if it's any consolation" She looks up at him "you are scary as hell when you're angry." All three of the students laugh.

"You sure know how to make a situation better, huh?" Weiss chuckles out.

"Eh, I try." Hunter shrugs with a smile.

Once they were done laughing, Weiss gets a sincere look on her face. "Thank you guys, both of you."

"No problem." Hunter smiles wide. Blake just nods with a small smile. "Besides, I love romance." They all chuckle once more.

Weiss has a big smile on her face. "Well, looks like I've got to think of a gift." _Looks like I'm actually doing this. "Yes you are."_ Weiss then remembers something else. "Oh, Hunter?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you noticed any other crushes in this school?" Weiss points Blake a knowing look. Hunter doesn't notice, for once, since he begins to think about all the romances in the school.

"Oh my God, you bet I have. Last night, I literally thought to myself Beacon should be called The Romance Tower with all the crushes here." He says chuckling a bit.

"Could you name some off?"

"Sure." He begins to count on his fingers. "There's you and Ruby, Pyrrha and Jaune, Ren and Nora, Velvet and Cocoa" The two girls' eyes widen at that last one.

"Wait wait. Velvet and Cocoa?" Blake and Weiss are very surprised by that. They had seen the others he named off and could see their feelings for each other, but Velvet and Cocoa completely caught them off guard.

"Oh yeah, for sure. When they were fighting, Cocoa always looked over to make sure Velvet wasn't hurt. She also stood closer to her than what is normal. And, you can always tell by their eyes." They look at him in confusion. "When somebody has very strong feelings for somebody else, their pupils dilate when they see them. You subconsciously want to see more and take in more; so your pupils dilate to let in more light so you can see them better. It's one of the reasons I figure these things out so quickly."

"Hmm, that's very interesting. Never heard of that before." Blake admits.

"Yeah, not many people do. You have to do research to find that information." He says with his smirk.

"Ok well you forgot one." Weiss holds one finger up on her right hand.

"What? Oh you mean Blake and Yang? I figured that out a few minutes after I figured you and Ruby out." He looks at Blake and sees her cheeks heating up.

"Dang it. For a second there, I thought I might've known something you didn't." Weiss adorns a small pout on her face.

Hunter just looks at her and chuckles. "You've obviously been spending quite a bit of time with Ruby. That pout is almost identical." Weiss blushes and stops pouting. "Anyway, I found out about Bumblebee when-"

Blake interrupts him. "What's Bumblebee?"

"Oh, it's you and Yang as a couple. It's your shipping name." Hunter explains with a smile. Blake just blushes and nods for him to continue. "I found out about that when Yang was holding me in her lap last night, after my semblance activated. Blake was glaring at me with the same killing intent as you did Weiss."

Blake blushes even more at that. "I didn't think you would've noticed at the time."

"Yeah, many people make that mistake when they meet me."

Weiss tries to get them back on point. "Anyway, I was thinking you could help Blake out with her feelings."

"Well that's up to Blake."

Weiss looks at him in slight disbelief. "What? But you had no hesitation to get involved in my love life. Why do yo-"

Hunter cuts her off. "Because you came to me for help. You asked me to get involved. Blake hasn't… yet." He finishes with a small smirk pointed at Blake.

"Oh, ok. Well Blake, go on. Ask him for help."

Blake visibly hesitates. Hunter puts his hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to make that decision now. I can see that it's not bothering you as much as Weiss; so it doesn't have to take immediate precedence. It's up to you."

Blake looks down and then nods. "Thank you. I'm not sure if I'm as ready as Weiss is and I don't want to do anything like this." Hunter nods, a little disappointed that he won't be able to help get them together soon. "But, I wouldn't mind some advice." Hunter's smile brightens tenfold. They can tell he's about to 'fangirl' so they stop him. "I swear if you fanboy right now, I won't let you give me advice."

Hunter immediately stops and tries to compose himself. "Ok ok." After taking a few deep breaths, he flashes his signature smirk. "I'm good now." Blake and Weiss smile and chuckle a bit. "So, what do you mean by giving you advice?"

"Um, I guess I can just give you a few situations and you tell me how to react."

"Ok, then tell me one."

Blake's thoughts immediately go to the morning when Yang came out of the shower naked. "Ok, what if she's naked and kinda teases me?"

Hunter isn't fazed at all by the question. "What type of teasing?"

"Like asking if her body is too much for me to handle or if I like what I see, something like that."

"Ah, ok. Well, I'd have to say flirt with her, subtly. If she asks if her body is too much, say something along the lines that she's beautiful and you wouldn't mind handling her sometime." Blake blushes profusely at Hunter's… suggestions. Blake looks over and sees that Weiss is blushing as well.

"A-Are you sure I should say that? I don't want to give her the wrong idea." Blake stutters.

Hunter laughs. "What do you mean by the wrong idea? Saying that gives her the right idea, that you are interested. Just, don't make it too obvious, make it a little subtle so that she questions whether you were joking or if you were really flirting. It makes her think of you a lot more and question whether she might be interested in you too."

"Do you know if she is interested?" Blake is very nervous… but she doesn't know whether she's more nervous about if he says yes or no.

"Um, actually… I'm not 100% sure." Blake and Weiss look at him wide-eyed. "If she is, then she's really good at hiding it." He notices Blake's slight disappointment. "But, if I could hazard a guess, I'd say that she is."

Blake looks up at him. "Wh-Why would you say that?"

Hunter could tell Blake was trying to suppress a smile and hide her joy. "Because I noticed during the battle yesterday, she kept looking over at you, making sure you wouldn't be hurt. Also, she always did her combo attacks with you. Not with Weiss, although I wouldn't expect her to, and not with her little sister, it was always with you." Blake blushes a little bit. "Oh, and she loves to pet your cat ears and calls you kitten so I'd say she's interested." And the blush intensifies to the color of Ruby's cloak. Hunter smiles at her reaction.

"How did you know about that?!" Blake demands to know.

He just chuckles a bit more. "Just because you lean in and whisper to each other doesn't mean I can't hear you. Good luck with that whole situation."

"How in the hell did you hear us?"

"I was literally sitting right next to you and when people are whispering, I tend to listen in. I know it wasn't my business but I couldn't help it. I'm a very curious person." He adorns a wide-smile.

Then Blake remembers something else. "Wait, how did you know she calls me kitten?"

"Cause I heard her mumbling in her sleep and saying something about kitten. I wasn't sure if it was you, but now I am."

Blake blushes. "Sh-She dreams about me?"

"I think so and if I know anything about teenagers; then I can probably guess what she was dreaming about." He gives Blake a mischievous smirk. Blake blushes once again.

"Wait," Weiss interrupts. "how come you're not '100% sure'? For you, that sounds like enough to make a conclusion."

"Well, I don't know how she is with dating. She seems like a very flirty type of person. I'm not sure if she's really into you or if she just thinks of you as a beautiful girl, who she wouldn't mind dating. What do you think Weiss?"

"Huh?"

"You've known them longer than I have, quite a bit longer actually."

Weiss doesn't hesitate. "The brute is definitely interested." This surprises even Hunter. Blake looks at her wide-eyed. "What? It's obvious as hell."

"So are you." Hunter flashes his smirk.

Weiss blushes but continues. "She doesn't flirt with other people as much as she does with you." Blake blushes. "Also, she loves to pet your ears way too much."

Hunter chuckles as Blake's blush intensifies. "Well I guess that answers your question, she's probably interested."

Blake tries, but fails, to suppress a smile of joy. When she realizes that she can't stop herself, she smile wide. "Thanks guys."

"Wow. I don't think I've ever seen you smile so wide. How about you Weiss?" Hunter smirks.

"Only when she was dancing with Yang during the school dance, but even that wasn't filled with as much joy as right now."

"Oh, so you danced with Yang, huh? What'd you do afterwards?" They both blush. Then, they both hit him, hard. "Ow. Ok I'm sorry, I was joking." He rubs his arm. "You girls can hit."

"That's nothing compared to Yang." Blake responds. Hunter opens his mouth to tease again but they both give him an icy glare. He stops and gulps. "Yeah, I'd rather not die, so I'll just shut up now." Both girls smile at the thought of scaring Hunter. "Anyways, can we go back now?" Both girls nod, ideas already brewing on how they're going to win over their interests.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sup hunters and huntresses. Another A/N here. I just wanted to say that this story is doing much better than I ever expected and I thank you all for giving it a chance. Also, I know there hasn't been much for the story to be rated M but the reason for that is in later chapters. I want to give a huge thanks to my 2 friends who helped write this, one of which is writing a spin-off that you will be able to find soon. So far, the stats are: 867 views, 8 followers and 7 favorites. Again, thank you all so much for reading my first story and supporting it.**

 **Ch. 10**

 **In the Dorm Room**

Ruby and Yang watch as the other three leave. Ruby watches in curiosity. "Sis?"

"Hmm?"

"Why couldn't they ask the questions in here, with us?"

"I don't know." Yang, being her usual stuff, sees the opportunity to make her sister blush. "Maybe Weiss isn't gonna ask questions."

"What do you mean?"

Yang adorns her mischievous smirk. "Maybe Weiss is gonna, you know, do some stuff with him." She wiggles her eyebrows.

Ruby blushes, knowing what Yang means. "Sis, stop it. Don't say that."

"What? There's always a chance."

Instead of just pouting or complaining, she retorts. "The same chance that Blake will do the same thing."

Yang's aura flares up, but she holds it back since it's her sister. "Ruby, shut up."

Ruby smirks. "That's what I thought."

"Hey, I'm sorry that I don't like your crush. I still don't know what you see in that Ice Queen."

"Um, actually. I have some news that you may be happy to hear." Ruby doesn't seem all that enthusiastic, but still tries.

"And what's that?"

"I'm gonna ask Hunter out on a date tomorrow."

Yang smiles. "Good." But then she turns serious. "But, why?"

Ruby becomes confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well, from what you used to tell me, you were in love with Weiss." Ruby blushes. "To suddenly ask someone else out, especially a guy, it's kind of strange."

Ruby tries to make up an excuse but decides it's best to tell the truth. "I just-" She sighs. "I don't think Weiss will ever be interested in me like that. Obsessing over her like I have been hasn't been healthy. I've stayed up all night, trying to see if she might be interested or not. I figured, if I try to go on a date, I might be able to get over her. I might be able to stop obsessing over her and move on. I don't want my heart to be broken."

"Ah, I see. Well if it makes you feel any better, I support you. I've seen you up all night, I've even heard you dreaming about her, and they're not nice dreams." Ruby blushes. "I think you're making the right decision."

Ruby smiles but then thinks about it. "You're just saying that because you don't like her."

"What gave it away?" She says sarcastically.

Ruby laughs. She then turns sincere. "Thank you Yang."

"No prob. That's what big sisters are for."

Ruby sits on her bed and puts on her music, blocking out the world, while Yang grabs one of Blake's secret books, Ninjas of Love: The Secret Dungeon, and reads it.

 **Less than an hour later**

Hunter, Blake and Weiss enter the dorm, laughing. Yang looks up and quickly hides the book in the same place she got it from. When she finishes hiding it, she turns back around. "What are you guys laughing about?"

"Hunter told us a story from his childhood." Weiss responds, still smiling.

"Yeah, it's hard to believe that he could've been so naïve and ignorant" Blake says still laughing.

"Hey, I was young."

"It was two years ago." Weiss reminds him.

"Exactly." He flashes his smirk. They all laugh. They then look over to see Ruby sleeping with her headphones on. "Hmm, guess that's how she has energy."

"Yup, naps, all day." Yang flashes her smile. Hunter then yawns, causing all the others to yawn as well.

Hunter looks over at the clock. **7:43 PM** "Still a little early, but I'm gonna go to sleep." He looks and sees a new bed on the right side of the room. "Hey, when'd that get in here?"

Yang looks at the bed. "Oh, I did that a little while ago."

"Oh, thanks." Hunter walks over and flops on the bed. "Night." The rest laugh, but go to their respective beds as well. Weiss dreams happily, for the first time in a long time.


	11. Chapter 11

**Ch. 11**

 **The Next Day**

Hunter was the first to wake up, as he always was. He slept very comfortably in his new bed that Yang put in. He laid there for a little while, thinking about everything that's happened. _All I was going to do was help out and kill some Grimm and now, I'm a student of Beacon, in training to become a Hunter. Getting involved in some interesting relationships. It's been an interesting two days._ After laying there for a few minutes, he finally gets up and looks outside. _It's still dark out._ He looks at the clock. **5:24 AM** _Oh, I guess that's why it's still dark._ Figuring that he's already up, he takes a shower and heads to the kitchen afterwards. While he's cooking, he lets his thoughts drift since cooking is almost muscle memory to him now. _I still can't believe that his has all happened. That I've been so easily accepted by everyone here, that I've been accepted into Beacon at all. My mother has already been given a job here. Actually, when is she gonna get here?_ He puts the food on simmer so it doesn't get burnt. He goes back to the dorm to check if anybody's awake yet. When he walks in, Blake is the only one up, wearing only a towel. "Oh, sorry." He closes the door. "I just wanted to let you know that breakfast is just about ready and when you're ready, I could use some help carrying it up here.

"Yeah sure. The others should be waking up soon. Just let me get dressed and I'll be out in a bit." Blake responds, voice slightly muffled by the door.

"Ok, thanks." Hunter stands outside in the hallway, with his hand in his pockets, patiently waiting. A couple minutes later, Blake opens the door, dressed in her usual combat attire. "Alright, ready?"

Blake nods. "Lead the way."

Hunter nods and they head towards the kitchen. As they approach the kitchen, Blake can already smell the delicious food. The eggs, bacon, pancakes, cookies, even fish. When Hunter puts all the food on plates, Blake takes it all in. _Everything looks and smells delicious._ She takes a small bite of some chopped fish. _Tastes delicious too._ "Are you gonna cook like this every day?" Hunter nods. "Good." A smile becomes present on Hunter's face.

"So I was thinking I can carry 4 plates and you can carry 3 plates." Blake nods. Hunter hands her the plates with the cookies, fish, and bacon. Hunter carries the pancakes, eggs, extra cookies and bacon, and a salad. "Alright, let's go." As they walk, Blake takes notice of Hunter's skillful handling of the plates. Hunter notices this. "I worked as a waiter for a while."

Blake looks a little taken aback, but composes herself. "Where?"

"This crappy restaurant in the middle of nowhere. It was terrible, but the pay was alright and it was actually kinda fun. I was actually really good friends with the cook. He taught me a lot about cooking." Hunter says, remembering all the things his friend taught him.

"Oh, so that's why you're such a good cook."

"Yup."

They walk the rest of the way in comfortable silence. When they reach the door, Blake opens it, to see that only Weiss has woken up. She had just gotten dressed a few minutes before they came in and was on her tablet. She looks up. "Oh hey guys." She then notices all the food. "Wow, that's a lot." She gets up, takes two plates from Hunter, and sets them on the desk. Hunter and Blake place the remaining food on the desk as well. She then looks at Hunter. "When did you do all of this?"

He looks at the clock. **6:27 AM** "Less than an hour ago. Woke up at about 5:30."

Weiss nods. "Well, I'm starving." She goes over and grabs her salad, some eggs and some bacon. "Thank you Hunter."

"No problem." He responds with a smile.

Blake looks at the food and then looks to the two sisters. "Well, we should probably wake them up. Don't want the food to get cold." Hunter nods. Blake goes over and begins to shake Yang. "Yang, Yang, wake up." Finally, Yang begins to groan. "Wake up!"

"Ok, ok, I'm getting up."

Yang makes no move to get up and tries to go back to sleep. "Yang, there's food."

Yang's eyes shoot open. She gets up and starts the shower almost as fast Ruby with her semblance. Hunter just looks surprised. "Well, that's a little strange. Now it's time to wake up the little Rose. I imagine that'll be a little more difficult."

Blake rolls her eyes and goes over to Ruby's disaster of a bed. "Ruby, Ruby, wake up."

"Hmm, five more minutes."

"There's cookies."

Ruby falls out of the bed trying to get up so fast. She hits the floor with a hard _Thud_. Before anyone can even ask if she's alright, she has a plate of cookies, one already in her mouth. Hunter just chuckles. "Well, looks like everybody's up." He grabs his plate of pancakes and bacon and begins eating.

A few minutes later, Yang comes out of the bathroom, dressed in her usual clothes. Ruby stuffs a few more cookies in her mouth before entering the bathroom. They all enjoy their meals, eating in a comfortable and friendly silence. Once they were all finished with their meals, Hunter moves to take each plate. "Wait, you weren't planning on taking all the plate, were you?" Weiss asks, practically daring him to say yes and not accept their help.

"Um, I was planning on it." They all point a knowing look at him. "But I'm going to assume that this is not going to go according to plan."

"Nope."

"Nuh-uh."

"Not a chance."

"You should know by now."

Hunter just smirks and allows them to help put the plates away. After going to the kitchen and washing the dishes, they return to the dorm. When they enter, Hunter remembers Weiss's tablet. "Oh Weiss?"

"Yeah?"

"Can your tablet make calls?"

"Yes it can."

"Can I use it to call my mother?"

"Yeah, sure. Here you go."

Weiss hands Hunter her tablet. He, leaning against the wall, dials his mother's phone number. He waits patiently as it rings a few times before he hears a familiar voice. "Hello, who is this?"

"Hey mom."

"Oh! Hunter, it's so nice to hear your voice again. Ozpin told me that you were injured. What happened?" His mother asks calmly.

"Eh, my semblance activated and you know how reckless it makes me."

He hears laughing on the other end. "Yes I do."

"Mom? Ozpin said he offered you a job, here at Beacon."

"Yes he did. A type of basic life skills class." She pauses. "Ozpin told me that you accepted a place at Beacon academy? Is that true?"

"Yes, yes I did." He was expecting a lecture. Something along the lines of "You have to be careful." or "Don't die." but not everything can be expected.

"Honey, I'm so proud of you. Getting accepted into such an amazing school, it's an accomplishment that your father would be proud of."

Hunter feels some stinging at his eyes. The mention of his father being proud of him is something he lives for, along with protecting people. "Th-Thank you." He chokes out, barely containing a sob. He then hears his mother beginning to break into tears and that's what breaks him. He begins to cry, slowly turning into a sob. The others become worried at first but then see the happiness and joy on his face. After a couple minutes of crying, he tells his mother about team RWBY, team JNPR, and all the amazing friends he's made so far. Finally, Hunter gets to the questions he wanted to ask in the first place. "So, when are you gonna get here?"

"Probably less than a week."

"Awesome, can't wait to see you."

"I can't wait either. Love you."

Hunter can almost hear the smile on his mother's face. "Love you too."

He hangs up and looks at the others. "When is she gonna get here?" Ruby has curiosity in her eyes.

"She said less than a week." Hunter says with a full smile on his face.

The others also get excited at the thought of finally meeting Hunter's mom. Then they all think about it and Yang begins to laugh. "What's so funny?" Weiss asks in confusion.

"Oh nothing. It just feels like we've known Hunter forever, doesn't it?"

They all think about it and start to laugh as well. Even Weiss begins to laugh. "For once, I'm gonna have to agree with you."

After laughing for a small bit, Ruby gathers her courage. "Hey guys, can you leave for a second? I wanted to talk to Hunter real quick."

Ruby gives Yang a pointed look, telling Yang what's going on. "Yeah guys, let's leave these two alone. I need some help anyways." Before the others can retort, Yang's already pushed them out and closed the door after giving Ruby a wink.


	12. Chapter 12

**Ch. 12**

Once everybody was gone, Hunter looked at Ruby with confusion. "So what's up?"

Ruby takes a deep breath and prepares herself. "Um, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out to dinner, tonight?" She ends quiet and high-pitched but Hunter can still hear her.

This completely takes Hunter off guard. He knew that she had feelings for Weiss and that Weiss had feelings for her. He opens his mouth to decline but is caught by her pout and puppy dog eyes. Once he's hit by those, he knew it was over. He gives in. "Um, yeah sure. Why not. Is 7:30 alright?"

"Um, yeah, that's fine." Neither sounded very enthusiastic about it, but agreed anyways. For Hunter, he couldn't say no to Ruby's puppy dog face. For Ruby, she wanted to move on from Weiss. For the first hour or so, things were awkward between the whole team. Nevertheless, since they have Yang and Hunter, two jokesters, things went back to normal quickly. At about 7:30, Hunter is waiting for Ruby outside the dorm room. When the door is opened, he is met with a sight he never thought he would've seen before. Ruby… in a dress and heels. While he was a little amused to see in her in a dress, he was also stunned by how beautiful she looked. The dress really fit her figure and showed it off well. _I'm sure Weiss would kill to be me right now._ She also fixed her hair up a little more and had some make-up, which was likely put on by the blonde-haired sister.

He clears his throat. "You look beautiful."

Ruby blushes a light pink. "Thank you. You clean up nicely as well."

"Thank you." He holds his arm out. "Shall we?"

"Of course." She interlocks his arm with hers and they leave, heading to the airships. They eat at a rather nice restaurant, not overly expensive but not a dump either. If they were to be honest, it was actually a quite nice first date. There was a lot of laughing and almost no awkward silences. It was as if they weren't on a date and were just hanging out as friends. At about 9:00, they get back to Beacon, walking through the courtyards and gardens. "Well, that was really nice." Ruby admits.

"Yeah, I must agree with you. Never thought you could be so enjoyable." She punches him in the shoulder. "Ow! Ok, I'm sorry." He apologizes as they both laugh. When they reach the fountain in the courtyard, Ruby turns to him. "Um, so what do we do now?"

"I-I'm not really sure." He chuckles out, trying to alleviate the awkwardness. It only works a little.

They stand there awkwardly before Ruby decides to speak up. "So, do you maybe wanna do this again?"

Hunter chuckles a bit before his answer. "As much fun as I had and as much as I would love to, there's someone else."

Ruby only feels slight disappointment. "Oh, ok. If I may ask, who is it you're interested in?"

Hunter gets a small mischievous smirk. "Well, less someone else for me…" She looks at him in confusion. "and more someone else for you."

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." She looks at him in even more confusion. "Ok, here's a hint. Ice."

Ruby's eyes immediately open wide and her jaw drops. "H-How, How did you know?" He gives her a knowing look. "Ok never mind, stupid question. Here's another one for you. Why does it stop you?"

He thinks about it for a moment. "Well there are multiple reasons but I'll go with, I'd rather not get involved in a relationship with someone who still has feelings for someone else."

Ruby thinks about it and decides to admit the truth. "Well, to be completely honest with you, I was kinda using you to try and get over her." She admits sheepishly.

"Yeah, I kinda figured by how 'enthusiastic' you sounded when you asked me out." They both laugh at that. "But why would you want to get over Weiss?"

She sighs. "Because she doesn't like me like that."

Hunter understands her fear and reasoning. "Ah, I see. Well, if it's any help," She looks up at him. "I think she's interested."

Ruby's eyes widen. "Why would you say that?"

"Just how she acted during the battle and how she talks differently with you than with other people." She looks at him in confusion. "She opens up to you more. She allows her feelings to come out more than she does with almost anyone else. If you want my opinion, don't give up."

Ruby thinks about it, and then smiles wide. "You're right, I'm not gonna give up. Thank you."

"No problem." They start to walk again before Hunter stops. "Oh and if you ever need help with the WhiteRose situation, you know where to find me."

"WhiteRose?"

"You and Weiss as a couple." Ruby blushes. "I completely support it and would love to see you two get together." Ruby blushes even more, but smiles and nods.

"I'll make sure to talk to you."

Hunter smiles. "Oh, and let me know if anything develops with Bumblebee." He starts to walk away.

"Bumblebee?"

"What are the colors of a bumblebee?" He asks rhetorically.

"Black and Yellow."

"And which two wear black and yellow?"

"Blake and Ya-" Her jaw drops once again as she stands there in shock.

"Alright, come on Ruby, let's go back to the dorm." No response. "Ruby?" Jaw still dropped. "Well, this might be a problem."


	13. Chapter 13

**Ch. 13**

 **Two months later**

"And there we go." The doctor says as she cuts off the last piece of the cast. Hunter lifts his arm and rotates his wrist, happy he's able to use it once again. The healing time took less than expected since it wasn't as serious as it was first thought to be and Hunter used his aura to speed up the recovery time, something not many are able to do. "Now please, try to be more careful." The doctor smiles at him.

"I'll try." He smiles back. He waves to the doctor as he leaves, happy he can finally use his arm again. Sure, he had endured similar injuries before, but it was still annoying being unable to fight effectively, one of his favorite pastimes. He walks through the now familiar halls and courtyards of Beacon. Almost everyone knows and likes him now. It didn't take very long as the story of his fight during the Attack on Beacon spread quickly throughout Beacon. At first, it was a little odd having people come up to him and saying that he was brave, courageous, or a total badass, but he soon got used to it and just chuckled or embellished the story a small bit. The past couple months had been absolutely amazing, not only for Hunter, but for his mother and the students of Beacon. Ms. Jagim was quite happy teaching kids how to cook and perform other simple skills they'd need throughout their life. When it came to the romance of Beacon, it had evolved quite a bit. Jaune finally worked up the nerve and courage to ask Pyrrha out, Cocoa practically forced herself onto Velvet, even though Velvet wasn't complaining, and Ruby had a secret admirer that no one, except Hunter and Blake, knew the identity of. The gifts started out very simple, some food, a rose, and messages. Then they started to become more meaningful, such as some of Ruby's favorite trinkets and an expensive pair of headphones were given the day after her headphones finally broke. Blake had also took Hunter's advice when it came to the blond beauty. They had been subtly flirting for a month and now this month, it was much less subtle. It became much more obvious and got to the point of where they knew exactly what the other was talking about and what they wanted. Blake, being a secret romantic, plans to kiss Yang under a mistletoe on Christmas Day. While Hunter thought it was very cheesy, he still thought it was a good idea and supported Blake. Yesterday, Weiss had told Blake and Hunter that she was ready and planned on telling Ruby on Christmas Day, as Hunter had suggested so long ago. He looks up, sees some snow starting to fall, and takes notice of the colder temperatures. While he notices it, it doesn't bother him. He did always like the cold. As he watches a snowflake fall, he thinks. _That reminds me. Christmas is in two days._ He smiles at the thought. Christmas was always one of his favorite holidays. The snow, cold, and happy mood everyone was in made it almost impossible for Hunter to not be happy. He walks back to the dorm, smiling at the sight of the girls. "What's up?"

"Nothing much." Yang replies. "Nice to see your cast is off."

He lifts his arm and looks at it. "I know right? Finally, I can fight. Anybody wanna spar?"

"Sure."

"Why not?"

"I could use a workout."

"I'd be honored."

Hunter smiles. "Well, looks like we're on our way to the training area."

 **A few hours later**

Blake, Weiss, Yang, and Ruby are all keeled over, hands on their knees, panting hard. They're covered in bruises and are having a hard time catching their breath. Meanwhile, Hunter skips over, happy as ever, not breathing heavy in the slightest. "Oh man it feels so good to fight again!" He yells in joy. "Thanks guys." He leaves the room with an extra bounce in his walk. The other just look at each other in disbelief and go back to the dorm for a well-deserved nap. Hunter uses this time to spar even more, either by himself or with other students. When he finally goes back to the dorm, he's exhausted and falls asleep easily. He actually sleeps in rather late, compared to Hunter's usual time. The following day is spent eating, joking, and more sparring, requested by Hunter. It was a rather uneventful, normal day in Beacon or, as Hunter enjoyed calling it, The Romance Tower. The next day, however, will be a very interesting one.

As Hunter woke up, the first thing he noticed was all the white outside. _It's snowing, a lot._ He smiles. _Today's gonna be a good day._ He remembers all the plans for today. Weiss telling Ruby she's the secret admirer, Blake kissing Yang under the mistletoe, and the party that's going to be held in the cafeteria. They have everything set up, the huge tree, the mistletoes, presents, decorations, everything you can imagine for Christmas Day. "Wake up sleepyheads, it''s Christmas!" He hears a high-pitched squeal from above him.

 _What the hell? Ruby's up already?_ He looks up and sees the red that could only be Ruby. "What are you doing up already? You always sleep in."

"It's Christmas, of course I'm up early." Ruby has a wide smile and looks at him like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Hunter just looks at her in confusion and disbelief but then adorns a smile. He starts to get up, slowly. "Hurry up slowpoke. It's Christmas!" Hunter continues the same speed and goes into the bathroom to take a shower, but not before checking the time. **7:05 AM.** _Ruby would wake up so early on Christmas._ He takes a nice long shower, biding his time.

Finally, he gets out of the shower. He then realizes that he forgot to bring his clothes in and only has his towel. He peaks out of the bathroom with the towel around his waist. Ruby's gone and the rest seem to still be asleep. He walks out and grabs his clothes quickly. He heads towards the bathroom door. "What are those from?" He hears Blake question groggily.

He turns around. "What are you talking about?"

"The scars on your back, how'd you get them?" She asks with calm curiosity.

Hunter sighs. "After my father died, I fought, a lot. And I don't mean I fought people, I fought Grimm." Blake looks at him in shock. "It's how I coped with the loss… it's still how I cope with loss."

Blake gets up and walks over. "Can I see?" She hesitates.

Hunter turns around, allowing Blake to see a full view of all the scars. There are at least 20 small scars and at least 5 big scars that go all the way down his back. "I have some on the front, but they're harder to see." Blake begins to lightly trace some of the bigger scars.

"Wow." is all Blake can manage as a response.

"Yeah, it was stupid. It was just one of the few things I knew how to do and it allowed me to release my emotions freely. While I still like to fight with emotion, I'm much more careful now." Hunter turns back around and faces Blake. "Not to be rude, but I kind of wanna get dressed now." He smiles.

"Yeah, of course." Hunter opens the door. "Hunter?" He turns around. "Remember, we'll always be here for you." Hunter smiles and nods. He closes the door. Blake sits on her bed, waiting for her turn to get in the shower. Something that neither of them noticed was Yang's open watery eyes.

 _I should've known. Shouldn't have gotten my hopes up! I'm so stupid!_ Yang feels broken, until she remembers who she is. _No! No way am I just gonna go down without a fight. I'm Yang Xiao Long and I always fight till the end. I'm just gonna have to kick it up a notch._ She smiles with a new feeling of determination. A couple hours later, everybody is awake and feeling refreshed. Ruby is, of course, the most excited and happy for Christmas. Meanwhile, both Blake and Weiss were feeling nervous about their confession later that night. Yang was feeling very determined and confident about winning over Blake. Then there's Hunter, who's just as excited and happy about Christmas as Ruby is. The only difference is that he can hide it better. They spend the day eating special Christmas cookies, baked by Hunter, and hanging out like any other day. They even went outside and played in the snow a few times throughout the day. The only ones who could stay out for longer than the others were Hunter and Weiss. At about 7:00, they start to head towards the cafeteria for the Christmas party. When they enter, they see almost all the students of Beacon laughing, smiling, some even sparring. There's a 15-foot Christmas tree in the very center of the room, heavily decorated. The decorations were courtesy of Ruby, Velvet, and a few others. There were fountains of all types, water fountains, chocolate fountains, vanilla fountains. Hunter would describe it as one of the most over-board Christmas he had ever seen… and he loved it. "So what do we do?" Blake turns to the others.

Hunter smiles and starts walking backwards towards the center. "We have the time of our lives." The rest smile and they all separate into different parts of the room, hanging out, eating, and sparring. It was an amazing night; nevertheless, Blake and Weiss were still very nervous. Soon, they were going to confess their feelings to their long-time crushes, something that would wrack anyone's nerves. As much fun as they had, they couldn't fully forget about it and it held them back throughout the night. A couple hours after they got there, it was time.

Weiss walks up to Ruby. "Hey Ruby?" She tries her hardest to keep her voice even and calm, so Ruby doesn't think anything is wrong.

"Yeah, what's up?" Ruby beams a wide-smile, completely oblivious to the relentless butterflies in Weiss's stomach.

"I was wondering if you could accompany me outside for a minute. I wanted to talk to you." She gives Ruby a smile, further enforcing the idea that nothing is wrong.

"Yeah, of course." Ruby puts down her cup of soda and follows Weiss outside. Weiss leads her to the fountain, far enough away from the party so they won't be interrupted. "Ok, so what did you want to talk about?" Weiss takes a deep breath, preparing herself. Finally, Ruby notices how nervous Weiss is. "Weiss, what's wrong?" She asks concerned.

"I-I need to tell you something." Ruby nods. "You know how a couple months ago, you got a secret admirer?"

"Of course."

"Yes, well, I know who it is."

"You do?" Weiss nods. "Well who is it?" Ruby asks excitedly. The identity of her secret admirer was a mystery that bothered her for the longest time. Not because she was interested since she already had her eyes on someone else, that someone else being right in front of her, but because she loved the thrill of solving a mystery.

Weiss closes her eyes and takes a deep breath to calm herself down. _I'm really gonna do it._ She opens her eyes and looks directly into Ruby's silver orbs. "Me."

Ruby just looks at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Weiss sighs, hoping Ruby could understand from the simple response. "I-I'm your secret admirer." Ruby's eyes open wide. "I'm the one who's been leaving you gifts and messages and I'm sorry if it was creepy but it was the best thing for me and-" Weiss is cut off by the feeling of something warm pressing against her lips. She realizes that Ruby is kissing her. She practically melts then and there, but remembers that she should respond. She places her hands on Ruby's waist, pulling her closer with the purpose of deepening the kiss. It held all the passion, tension, and love that the two held for each other. Neither of them pushed it too far and didn't go for tongue. They were happy enough kissing with just lips. They both felt like staying there forever, but sadly their brains needed oxygen so they were forced to pull away. When they pulled away, Weiss's hands stay on Ruby's waist while Ruby's arms are wrapped around Weiss's neck. They stand there panting heavily, foreheads pressed together. When Weiss finally catches her breath, all she can manage is "Wow." and a huge smile.

Ruby smiles back. "Wow." They stand there smiling to each other. "So what does this mean for us?"

"Huh?"

"Like, are we… girlfriends?"

Weiss smiles. "I don't know, you haven't asked me yet."

They both laugh, as Ruby kisses her lightly. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Happily." Weiss beams an ear-to-ear grin. "God I've been waiting so long to hear that."

Ruby kisses her again. "And I've been waiting so long to do _that._ "

Weiss notices Ruby shivering a small bit. "Do you wanna go inside? You look like you're getting cold."

Ruby hugs Weiss. "I won't be if we stay like this."

Weiss smiles and hugs back even tighter. "I'm fine with this." The two girls, always thought to be complete opposites, stand outside, swaying lightly to the slow dance music from the party, both the happiest they had ever been in a long time.

 **Inside the cafeteria**

 _Haha, finally! Been waiting for that to happen for months now!_ Hunter smiles as he sees the two opposites kissing by the fountain. _Well, one down._ He looks over at Blake and Yang. _One to go._

Blake saw Weiss lead Ruby outside and knew what would result; so, she figured now was a best a time as any for her turn. She looks through the crowd, looking for the familiar, beautiful, yellow hair she had come to admire over the year. _Where is she? I can't see he-_ "Aaaaah!" She automatically screams from the feeling of very hot hands grabbing her sides. She hears laughing behind her.

"Hahahahaha, Oh my God! Your scream is so cute Blake." Yang is clutching her stomach, ignoring the glare Blake is giving her. Finally, Blake just shakes her head and gets back to what she wanted to ask.

"Ha ha, laugh it up. Now would you stop, I need you to follow me."

After Yang catches her breath, she wipes a tear from her eye. "Why?" She asks, still smiling.

"There are some cases of beer I need you to carry."

At the mention of beer, Yang immediately adorns a smile. "Ok."

Blake leads her through the double doors to the north and goes to a supply closet. She opens it up to reveal several cases of beer. Yang brightens up and they each take a few cases. As they walk back, Blake pretends to have a cramp in her back. "Ow ow."

Yang immediately sets the beer down and checks on Blake. "Are you ok?" She asks with worry.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a small cramp. I'm good now." Blake holds her hand out and Yang helps her up. As they stand in the middle of the doorway, Blake looks up. "Hey Yang?"

"Yeah?" Blake simply points up. Yang follow her finger and sees a mistletoe. Yang then looks back at Blake and blushes.

They stand there awkwardly before Blake speaks up. "So are you gonna, you know, follow tradition?" She then feels doubt and begins to panic. "I mean, if it's too weird for you, then you don't have to. I was just thinking-" She's cut off by Yang's lips. She immediately melts into the kiss and leans into Yang, deepening it. Unlike Ruby and Weiss, they open their mouths to explore with their tongues. They fight for dominance before Yang finally triumphs. When she touches the roof of Blake's mouth, Blake can't suppress a moan. Yang smiles against her lips and continues exploring. They finally part, panting heavily, a single strand of saliva connecting the two pairs of lips. They gaze into each other's eyes, smiling. "So, that was interesting." Yang nods. "Wanna go out tomorrow?"

"Sure." They laugh and kiss a couple more times before picking the beer up again.

 _And there we go._ Hunter smiles from across the room as he sees the other two members of RWBY kissing. A couple minutes afterwards, he sees Ruby and Weiss walk back inside, hand-in-hand. _Well, looks like they're not afraid to show it… good._ He smiles. He makes eye contact with Ruby and Weiss and beckons them over. They walk over and he smiles wide. "So, how'd it go?" He directs the question at Weiss

She scoffs and smiles. "I know you already know."

"And you'd be right."

Ruby looks between the two in confusion. "Wait, wait. Hunter knew you were going to do this?"

"Um, yeah he did."

"I was actually the one who gave her the idea to be your secret admirer."

"Wait, you've known the whole time?"

"Yup." He smirks.

She then remembers the date night they went on and how he said he thought Weiss was interested. "Oh, so that's why you told me to not give up on my feelings for Weiss."

Weiss is now the one who's confused. "Wait a second. You knew Ruby had feelings for me?" She glares at Hunter.

He smirks once again. "OF course I did."

Her glare simply intensifies. "And you didn't tell me?"

He is a little discouraged by the anger in her voice, but not much. "Now, where's the fun in that?" She gives him one of her signature ice glares. "Look, you guys needed to find out for yourselves. If I told you that you each had feelings for each other, well it was just a simple hop to being together. Going through the process of secret admirer and confessing on your own terms, it'll only strengthen your relationship." Weiss's glare softens. "I'm sorry I kept you two in the dark, but it was the best option." Weiss completely calms down and nods. "Glad you understand. Now, the reason why I called you over here was because I wanted you to look at that." He points to the other two girls across the room, who are currently kissing passionately.

They both smile as they see how happy they make each other. "Aw, they're so cute together." Ruby clasps her hands together.

Weiss smiles and smacks her upside the head lightly. "Shut up you dolt."

"Ow, Weiss that hurt. You better apologize or-" She's cut off by a kiss from Weiss.

When they part, Weiss has a small smirk from Ruby's love-struck smile. "All better?"

"Mm-hmm." Ruby nods.

"Good. Now let's enjoy ourselves." They spend the rest of the night drinking, except for Ruby, and telling jokes. At about midnight, the party begins to die down and at 12:30, they start to clean up. At 1:30, the cafeteria was finally returned to normal. RWHBY was exhausted by that time and went back to the dorm, two pairs holding hands as they went. Hunter could tell they were very happy with each other and that nothing would ever be the same again. However, he believed that it would change for the better. He smiled at the thought of the future and what would be waiting for them. _It can only get better from here._ He thinks with a smile. "What are you smiling about?" Weiss asks, one hand firmly clasped with Ruby's.

"Nothing, just thinking about the future."

"What about it?" Ruby asks with curiosity.

"I feel like it can only get better from here." Everybody voices, or simply nods, their agreement. They enter the dorm and want to change it up. They decide they want to have a sleepover like they did the first night Hunter had arrived at Beacon. They gather the mattresses, pillows, and blankets and arrange them into a comfortable bed for five. Once again, Hunter is in the middle as the rest sleep in pairs. They sleep rather easily, happy and feeling confident they can deal with anything coming their way.


	14. Chapter 14

**Ch. 14**

Everyone in Beacon academy awakes with a start from a rather loud sound. An explosion. As everyone shoots up, they hear another one. _BOOM!_ Hunter is the first to react, looking out the window. He sees fire and multiple Grimm and White Fang members attacking Beacon. _Not again._ "Guys, get up!"

"What's happening?" Weiss asks concerned.

"The White Fang and Grimm. They're attacking Beacon. Come on!" He runs out of the room, RWBY following close behind. When they get outside, they see the full extent of the destruction caused. Fire and rubble can be seen for miles.

Hunter's semblance flares up, but he keeps it controlled. Over the past couple months; the girls had helped him retain control of his semblance. He can actually keep control when it's activated, but only for the low levels of his semblance. If he gets too angry, he loses control once again. _Keep it under control Hunter; remember your training._ He loses his train of thought when they hear, and see, another explosion. _Boom!_ He immediately runs towards it, the girls having a hard time keeping up.

When he arrives, he sees multiple White Fang members laughing at a burning house. There are at least 10 and when they see RWHBY, they grin and laugh. "What are you kids doing here? Don't you know it's dangerous to play with animals!" One bares his teeth, multiple being long sharp fangs. As the members of RWHBY pull their weapons out, the White Fang members laugh once again. "Hahaha, so you wanna play? I'll show you-" Before any can react, the faunus head of the White Fang member is flying through the air, completely detached from the body. They look to see Hunter past the body with a sword in each hand.

All the White Fang look at each other and attack simultaneously, but Hunter is too fast for them. He parries every attack, countering in turn. The bodies of the White Fang drop, one by one, clutching their stomachs or necks from the long cuts across them. The battle only takes a few seconds, before every faunus is on the ground, bleeding. Hunter stands in the middle with his swords, breathing as evenly as if he had jogged a couple hundred feet.

He turns back to the girls… and they look at him in shock. He then looks at the dead bodies and turns his back to the girls. "It had to be done. Let's go." They follow him again, helping him in multiple battles against both Grimm and White Fang.

They later notice that multiple teams of Beacon are out and fighting as well. Before long, they push back the majority of the White Fang, causing them to retreat. When they follow them to a large courtyard, they all see an impressive and scary sight. Hundreds of White Fang and Grimm, all facing Beacon in lines, as if they're going to war. Hunter realizes that they are going to war. _The leader of the White Fang would never send so many unless it's a declaration of war and a direct attack to try and take Beacon over._ One thing he doesn't understand is why the Grimm are fighting with the White Fang. _They are mindless, blood-thirsty creatures… I can see why the White Fang are working with them. Still doesn't explain why Grimm are working with them though._

He then sees the middle of the army separate, line by line. They watch as four walkout, confidence clear with their body language. As they walk out, he hears Blake gasp. Hunter ignores her and steps forward. "Who are you?!"

The dark-haired girl simply laughs. "You don't know who I am boy? I am Cinder… the Fire Maiden." She then gestures to each of her companions. "This is Emerald and Mercury, my loyal followers." He sees the same girl he saw the first night at Beacon and has to stop himself from being mesmerized by her beauty. "And this is Adam, the leader of the White Fang." Blake has fear in her eyes as Adam grins at her.

"Why are you doing this?" One of the Hunters asks.

Cinder simply laughs once more. "You have no idea what's coming, who is coming. Nevertheless, you'll know soon enough. All I can say is be ready for pain you've never felt before."

One of the Hunters runs forward with amazing speed, intent on killing Cinder. However, he's not nearly fast enough and is burned alive by the Fall Maiden.

"Brendan!" One of the others scream.

They look at the charred body as Cinder laughs. "You stupid, ignorant children. I am not Torchwick, someone you can just push aside."

Blake steps forward and looks at Adam. "Why are you doing this? This isn't you, you would never side with a human."

"You don't know me Blake, not anymore, but soon enough, you will, when I take you from here and make you mine." He has a wide grin and they all know what he's thinking.

This angers Yang beyond all measure and she steps in front of Blake. "You will do nothing to her."

Adam smiles. "Oh, but I will. I will take her and make her mine." Yang's aura flares up. "I will do so many things to her, so many things that you cannot." She begins to grit her teeth.

Hunter notices. "Yang calm down. He's baiting you." But she doesn't listen, she only looks at Adam.

"I will make her feel so many things, so much pleasure and pain. She will forget about you within a matter of weeks." That's enough to activate Yang's semblance. As she shoots herself forward. Hunter reaches out for Yang's arm, but it's too late. She's out of his range. She screams as she goes straight toward Adam. Adam just smiles as he puts his hand on his sword and pulls it out with lightning speed, sending it straight across Yang's stomach. Yang goes past him, unconscious.

"Ha, stupid girl, no one can-" He's cut off as he's punched in the face with immense power. He's sent back but catches himself and lands on his feet. He looks up to see Hunter there, huge gauntlets on each hand. He then switches to his dual swords and continues his attack, Adam barely able to block it.

Adam pushes him back and they stand in the middle of the two armies, circling each other. Hunter's semblance is activated, but only a small amount so he retains control. "Do you really think you can defeat me? I am the leader of the White Fang and the most skilled swordsman in the world. Do you really think you stand a chance?" Hunter does not respond and instead observes Adam's stance. _He is overly confident. He doesn't have his sword in a full position, sure that he's fast enough. Time to break that confidence._ "Wow, you really do think you have a chance. Alright, let's-" Hunter shoots past him, barely grazing Adam's side with his sword. "Aah." He holds his side and looks at his hand only to see blood. Anger becomes clear. "You son of a bitch!" He attacks but is easily parried by Hunter, getting a slash on his arm. "Goddammit!"

Hunter finally shows a reaction and smirks. "Maybe you should put your foot back a bit more. You have terrible form."

Adam looks at him with ever increasing anger.

"You do not have the right to lecture me. I am the greate-" Hunter shoots forward once again, slashing Adam's knee. "Ah fuck! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

Hunter still wears a smirk on his face. "Well, If you keep that form up, you're never gonna achieve that goal. Here, let me give you some pointers, take your foot back like this and-" He's cut off as Adam shoots forward but is parried by Hunter, using his momentum to send him back. "See, now that's a little better. Still terrible, but an improvement certainly." He watches as Adam's confidence dwindles. _He's losing his confidence. Now's my chance._ "Alright, enough playing around." He allows his semblance to go to the next level, completely changing his hair and eyes to a dark blue and has an aura of blue around him. "Time to finish this."

Adam looks at him with fear as Hunter darts forward attacking again and again and again, never allowing Adam a break. Adam blocks the first few but Hunter is too fast and is hit by every slash soon enough. Finally, Hunter summons his gauntlets and punches Adam square in the face, breaking his nose and knocking out some lands right in front of the White Fang, who back up in fear. They look at Hunter with fear evident in their eyes. Adam is completely unconscious, bleeding heavily.

Hunter walks toward Yang daring anyone, with his eyes, to stop him. None of them do and simply watch as he picks Yang up and carries her bridal style to the other side. He hands her to one of the medically trained officers behind the hunters. "Take care of her." He then looks at Blake and sees tears in her eyes. "She'll be fine. She's strong." He smiles at Blake. It cheers her up a bit and she nods, still worried but confident Yang will be fine. He then turns back to the enemy, shock and fear still evident on their faces. "Anybody else wanna give it a shot?!" They back up in fear.

He then looks at Emerald and Mercury. He noticed when Cinder burned the hunter; they looked disgusted and obviously didn't agree with it. They also didn't seem to care that he almost killed Adam. _They must not agree with what Cinder is doing._ He flushes his system of anger and turns sympathetic, looking towards Emerald and Mercury. They stare right back. "Why are you apart of this?"

They look at him with anger. "Nobody's going to tell you why we're attacking Beacon so sto-" Emerald is cut off.

"I'm not asking why you are _all_ attacking Beacon. I'm asking why you two are still apart of this plan." They look at him in confusion. "You obviously don't agree with much of what Cinder is doing, so why are you helping her?" They look at him in shock. "Did she promise you something?" No reaction. "Did she save you?" There's the reaction he was looking for. It was very subtle but he saw their eyes widening and a slight lower of their heads. "Look, I know what it feels like to think you owe someone because they saved you." They look at him with surprise. "But that doesn't mean you are forced to follow them. You are still your own person; you still make your own decisions." He can see the words are having an effect on them, but not enough. "Do you really agree with what she is doing, with killing these kids? Kids who have a whole life ahead of them." He looks at the charred body of Brendan. "Kids who had potential." They both look at the dead body and feel stinging in their eyes. "Do you really think this is right?"

"I've had enough of this. Kill him." Cinder interrupts. Emerald and Mercury look at each other and nod. They walk towards Hunter. Cinder smiles, thinking that Hunter failed to convince them. That is, until they turn around and draw their weapons on her. She becomes enraged. "What are you doing?! I saved you! You wouldn't be here if it weren't for me!"

"And I thank you for the second chance, but I will not use it to kill any more innocents. This is wrong and I've had enough of it." Emerald glares at Cinder.

Cinder screams. "Fine, then I will just kill you like all the others." She begins to levitate, her eyes glowing with golden fire, fireballs forming in each hand. However, before she can attack, everybody notices a shadow coming towards the middle.

Everybody is confused… except for Hunter. "No way, is it really?" The shadow begins to grow bigger and humanoid shapes begin to come out of it. "It is!" He shouts with joy. He then remembers who this person is. "Hey Shade, if you're gonna kill anyone, kill them." He points to the White Fang-Grimm army.

Just then, the shadows begin to attack the army, killing left and right. There is one among them who has color and is much faster than the rest. He cuts through the army with amazing speed, wielding one sword in each hand. Cinder watches as her plan goes up in flames. Hunter locks eyes with her. "You can't win Cinder. Leave now, or you will die."

She growls but is splattered with blood from one of the Ursas, now cut in half. She looks around and sees that there is no chance she will win. She growls once again. "This is not over! I will come back and kill you all!" She looks to her army. "Retreat!" They didn't need to be told twice as they all run in the opposite direction, accepting defeat. As the army runs, they notice the shadows go back into the ground, leaving only one standing there.

They can only see him for a split second before he disappears. "Hey Hunter." They see Hunter go flying across the courtyard, catching himself and standing back up. "Let's see how your training's been." He cracks his knuckles.

Hunter laughs and cracks his back. "Hahaha… let's." They sprint/teleport straight towards each other, punching and kicking with amazing speed. They each get multiple punches in, not hurting each other just yet.

Then, Shade kicks Hunter in the chest, sending him back. "Ah come on, remember your footing." Hunter laughs and gets straight back up with a smirk. He warps at him, Shade expecting him to try a straight punch, but instead, Hunter warps behind him and punches him in the back of the head, sending Shade flying. When Shade catches himself, he laughs. "Hahahaha, been awhile since I've had a decent fight." He pulls out his two swords.

Hunter summons his two, "Yes it has." and they dart straight at each other, going so fast, no one can see what is happening. Blake can barely keep up, even with her cat features. All anybody can hear are the sounds of swords clanging and laughing from the two. All they can see are the sparks from the swords colliding. Finally, after fighting for a couple minutes, they fly in opposite directions after a massive blow from Shade that Hunter barely blocked. They tumble back and stand up a little slower, both panting. Hunter then summons his two pistols and begins shooting at Shade.

Shade easily deflects each bullet. He laughs. "Come on Hunter, you know bullets don't work."

He smirks. "I know, doesn't mean they're not a good distraction." He immediately warps behind Shade, sending the pistol in his right hand down, planning to use the knife on the bottom to collide with Shade's shoulder, but Shade is barely able to block it in time. This still gives Hunter an opportunity. He kicks Shade in the back, sending him flying face-first into a wall. He makes a human-shaped hole before pulling himself out of the wall, still smiling.

Shade turns around and just as he's about to teleport-strike Hunter, a bolt of white lightning hits the ground between the two. "Boys, stop playing!" The next thing RWBY knows, Hunter and Shade are hiding behind them, quivering in fear, each holding a piece of Ruby's cloak in their hands.

"Where is she?" Shade whispers.

Hunter looks around. "I don't know. I can't see her."

 _Tap Tap._ The two boys feel a finger tapping both their shoulders. They slowly begin to look behind them, but before they can see anything, a sharp _Crack!_ is heard as their skulls collide. "Hey boys." A feminine voice says. Hunter and Shade are on the ground groaning in pain. "Oh get up! I didn't even hit you that hard." She says as she kicks them both.

"Ow!" Hunter groans out.

"Not again." Shade agrees.

They both begin to stand up, slowly that is. When they're finally up, the girl glares at Shade. "What do you say?"

"I'm sorry." He mumbles out.

"What was that?"

"I'm sorry." He says clearer, not fighting her.

"Good." She smiles. She then notices all the hunters standing around with complete confusion evident on their faces.

"Ok! Can someone explain WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!?" They all look to see Yang, supported by a medic, standing there in confusion.

"Yang!" Blake runs over in happiness and kisses her passionately. Once they're finished, Blake looks over to the three. "I agree with Yang, can you please explain?" She asks calmer than Yang did.

"Uh, sure." Hunter says, still staggered from the woman colliding their skulls together. "This" he gestures to Shade. "is Shade. He's, well… he's kind of a demon." Everybody gasps and looks at him in fear.

"Did you really think it'd be a good idea to start with that?" Shade asks him.

"Shut up! I'm telling the story."

"I think it'd be better if I told it. I mean, it is about me." He says with a smile.

"True, but knowing you, you'd embellish just about everything."

"That is not true."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not!"

"Uh-huh."

"Nope."

"Yu-" Hunter is cut off as he's grabbed by the woman and thrown into Shade, the both of them flying across the courtyard, going through one of the buildings.

She sighs and dusts her hands off. "God I feel so much better. Those two idiots are so annoying when they're together." She then looks at all of them. "I'll explain. I'm Liz." She says with a smile.


	15. Chapter 15

_**A/N: What's up hunters and huntresses? I just wanted to say a few things. Yes there are some new OCs and these chapters may be a bit confusing, but I will explain more about them and some stuff from earlier will be explained.**_

 _ **Stats: 1,057 views, 8 favorites and 11 follows. Thank you so much for giving this story a chance.**_

 **Ch. 15**

"I'm Liz." The mysterious woman says with a bright smile. "As Hunter said, my husband's name is Shade."

"Wait wait, your husband?!" Weiss asks surprised. From what she had seen before, she would've thought she was just a good friend.

"Yes, my husband; though sometimes I loathe to call him that. But I'll always love him." She admits with a joyous smile. "Now, he is a demon, as Hunter said, but you do not need to fear him… unless you piss him off or hurt me; Otherwise, you will die." The others get a fearful look on their faces. "But if you avoid that, you'll be fine." She tries to assure them with another smile. It doesn't work. "All I'm going to tell you is that he is the king of the Shadow Kingdom, you can probably guess what that entails. I was the second princess of the Light Kingdom, before it was burnt to the ground by the Chaos Kingdom." They all gasp and look at her with sadness.

"I'm sorry." Ruby responds.

"Oh don't be, that happened billions of years ago." They look at her in surprise. "Oh yeah, me and my husband have been alive for over 4 billion years, so we've seen a lot. Now, he mainly works as a contract killer/mercenary. That's actually why we were here in the first place. One of our clients ordered a hit on one of the White Fang members, Johnny." She maintains a smile throughout the whole explanation.

"Um, I have a question." Yang speaks up. "You're really nice to us right now, but you weren't that nice to them." She gestures to the building with a hole in its wall. "Why is that?"

"Well, that's because I've dealt with Shade for 4 billion years and he's an idiot. Hunter is almost exactly like him so when they're together, it's like dealing with two of my husbands. I can only take so much idiocy." She explains with a roll of her eyes.

"Excuse me," Liz looks at Blake. "but Hunter is one of the smartest people I've ever met. He's super sweet and kind and I don't appreciate when people-" Blake's voice rises in anger before a hand is clasped over her mouth. They all see Hunter, who appeared out of nowhere.

"Do not anger her. Trust me." He says with fear.

He lets go of Blake. "Why are you so afraid of her?"

He sighs. "Remember the longest scar on my back?" She nods, remembering it specifically for its length. It ran from his left shoulder to the right side of his hip, a clean cut. It also looked to be extremely deep and probably hurt. "That was from her, because I angered her."

Blake gasps. "What did you do to anger her so bad?"

"Oh he didn't even anger me that much. He simply called me a bitch when he thought I wasn't there and he deserved punishment for that." She gives a knowing look to Hunter. He shudders at the memory.

"Yeah, do not anger her… ever!" Shade suddenly appears, agreeing with Hunter. "If you thought Hunter's was bad, you ain't seen nothing compared to what she's done to me."

"That is true." Liz smiles. "Anyway, where was I?"

"You guys are here because of a hit on Johnny?" Weiss reminds her.

"Ah yes, thank you. That's the whole reason we were here, we didn't even know Hunter was anywhere near here." She explains. "Now I'm sure you're wondering how we met?" Every single one of them nods. "Well, one day, we were on a hit for a random faunus client. He wanted this human politician dead. So, when we were camping out in the forest, Shade went out on a patrol in the morning and, well… it's better if Shade explains this part."

Shade looks at her and she nods. "Ok, well, as I was making my rounds, I heard a lot of grunting and screaming in the distance. I wasn't worried, but it also got me curious, so I decided to check it out. After less than a minute, I peeked through the trees to see a 12 year old with dark blue-tipped hair, fighting an Ursa." They all gasp and look at Hunter. He simply shrugs his shoulders. "Now, I've been alive for a very long time, so it didn't surprise or intrigue me all that much. What caught my interest though, was his constant teleporting and summoning of different weapons. That was something that piqued my curiosity a bit more, but not much. I was about to walk away, until Hunter gets thrown through a tree. Now, it wasn't him getting thrown through a tree that interested me, but rather what happened afterwards. I see this kid get up, gritting his teeth. His hair then turns completely dark blue, his eyes go dark blue, and there was an aura of blue fire around him. He then punched the hell out of the Ursa, beating it into a pile of red mush. That was what intrigued me. The kid then passed out and I knew I couldn't leave him there. So, I picked him up and carried him back to the camp."

Liz interrupts him. "Yeah, and he brought the kid to me so I could clean him up." She glares at him.

"Hey, you've been stitching my wounds up for years, so I knew you could do it. Anyways, Liz stitched up his many wounds from fighting the Ursa. But of course, this one surprised us." He punches Hunter's shoulder.

All of Beacon academy laughs and agrees with that. "Yeah, it's kind of his thing." Ruby agrees.

Hunter laughs as well. "Yeah, well, I kinda woke up before I was supposed to. They were supposed to stitch me up and drop me off back home, but I recover quickly from being knocked unconscious."

Liz interrupts him. "Yeah, that's because you're so Goddamn hard-headed." She smacks him upside the head.

"Ow! Why-" She glares at him. "…Never mind. Anyway, I kinda woke up and when I realized that these strangers brought me to their camp, I reacted… badly."

"I'd say you reacted much worse than just 'badly'." Shade gives him a knowing look.

"What'd he do?" Yang asks.

"He burned down our camp and all the trees within a 5-mile radius."

Yang smiles. "…Nice."

"Yeah." Hunter rubs his neck sheepishly. "Anyway, after that happened, they explained what happened to me and I thanked them afterwards."

"So why do you act like brothers? Sounds like you only met the one time." Blake has confusion on her face.

"Well, it didn't exactly end there." Hunter responds.

Liz smacks Shade upside the head this time. "Yeah, because my idiot husband here decided to make him an offer."

"Hey, I'm sorry but the kid was interesting. And he needed work on his footing. I figured if he was gonna fight, he should fight well."

"Yeah, Shade offered to teach me what he could about fighting. At first, I refused, but Shade, and Liz, both convinced me it'd be for the best."

The others look at Liz confused. She shrugs her shoulders. "What? He was obviously not gonna stop and I didn't wanna see the kid die, so I helped convince him to take Shade up on his offer." They still look confused, but nod, content with her answer.

"So, we spent the next couple years training. He was a brother… and a father figure to me." He smiles appreciatively at Shade.

Weiss realizes something. "Wait, for a couple years?" Hunter nods. "How did your mother react to this?"

"Well, at first she did not agree and worried a lot, but she-" It's then that everyone hears a feminine voice call out.

"Shade?! Liz?! Is that really you?!" They all turn to see Hunter's mother, running towards them.

"Ms. Jagim, it's so nice to see you again." Shade says as he hugs her.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Sara is fine." She then hugs Liz. "It's so nice to see you guys."

"It's amazing to see you as well."

As she separates, she looks to see everybody gathered around, very interested. "Um, what's going on?"

Hunter decides to explain since she's his mother. "Well, I didn't tell any of them about Shade or Liz so we're kinda explaining everything to them."

"Oh, ok. What part are you at?"

"I just told them about how I met them and that Shade taught me how to fight for a couple years."

"Ah, yes I remember those years." She has a reminiscent look on her face. "Every day you two would go out there and train for at least seven hours straight. You'd come back, clothes ripped to shreds and new scars. I wasn't worried though." Hunter gives her a pointed look. "Well, I wasn't worried _after_ Liz convinced me it was for the best. If Shade trained him, I wouldn't have to go through losing him like I did with my husband. After that, I knew Shade wouldn't hurt him when I saw how much like brothers they were."

While Sara is explaining her side of it, Shade leans over to Hunter and whispers. "So, let me get this straight." He points at Yang and Blake. "Those two?"

"Yup."

He points at Ruby and Weiss. "Those two?" Hunter nods. He points at Jaune and Pyrrha. "And them?" He nods once again. He points to Ren and Nora. "Them?"

"Not yet, but soon."

He points to Velvet and Cocoa. "Them?"

"Mm-hmm."

"And you and her?" He points to Emerald.

"Yu-" His words get caught in his throat. "Wait what?"

Shade smirks. "You heard me."

"Um, nope. Not with Emerald." Hunter says quickly with a blush.

"You mean not yet." He laughs. Hunter stands there embarrassed.

"So why did Shade leave?" Blake asked, picking up that Shade has been gone for at least a couple years.

"I kinda got busy with personal business. You know, my kingdom and enemies and stuff. Just had to deal with it."

"Yeah, I understood and we watched them leave. I kept using the techniques he showed me to perfect them. I was hoping that one day, if I ever saw him again, I could show him how much I learned." Hunter then sweeps Shade's legs out from underneath him, knocking him down. "Now I have that chance." He smirks.

Shade laughs and looks at Liz and Ms. Jagim. "You guys good?" They both nod. "Good." He cracks his neck. "Let's do this." Hunter and Shade continue their fight from earlier, flying all across the courtyard. The others just stare at them as they go. Liz and Sara just laugh as they watch them.

"Just like old times huh?" Liz nudges her with her elbow.

"Just like old times." She responds with a smile.


	16. Chapter 16

**Ch. 16**

 _ **A/N: Sup hunters and huntresses? Sorry about the late upload, some stuff came up. Since I felt bad, I uploaded a couple one-shots just to give you guys something to read, but now, I'm back. I also wanted to give a description of the characters (seeing that I forgot to do so for Hunter, I'll also put his here. Sorry.)**_

 **Hunter:**

 **Brown eyes (dark blue with semblance)**

 **Black hair with dark blue tips (similar to Ruby) (Completely dark blue with semblance)**

 **5'11"**

 **Has a school uniform-like outfit. A black, unbuttoned coat over the top. Sleeves go to wrist. Blue patches on both arms, facing out and just above bicep.**

 **Another white, buttoned coat underneath.**

 **Has a blue strap under the black coat that goes across his chest, left shoulder to right hip.**

 **Fitting black pants that come down just below his ankles.**

 **Black dress shoes.**

 **Shade:**

 **One brown eye and one black, both black when angered.**

 **Midnight Black hair that comes just over his eyes.**

 **6'2"**

 **Has a black trench coat (Tattered and torn at bottom) comes down to just above ankles(made out material by Shade that makes it strong enough to withstand a bullet, but still light enough to move freely in).**

 **Black skin tight, long sleeved t-shirt. Black pants that are little loose go down past ankles, with a white belt (Pants and and shirt are made of material made by Shade that is highly flexible and durable, but still light).**

 **Black boots that go halfway up shin, buckle instead of string.**

 **Later that night**

Team RWBY, Liz, and Shade are all in RWBY's dorm, sitting around. Hunter walks in with plates of food for everyone. "Here you go!" He gives food to everyone, except Shade who's currently sitting on the desk, staring out the window.

Blake looks at Hunter. "Isn't he gonna eat?" She nods her head at Shade.

He looks at him. "Nah, he's fine. He doesn't eat a lot and it's best not to interrupt him when he's thinking like he is now." Blake nods, understanding that Hunter knows more about him than any of the others, beside Liz.

As they all eat, they hear a sound they never would've thought they'd hear from Liz. "Mmm." They all stare at her. "What? His cooking is really good." They all laugh and agree, continuing to eat.

After a while, they hear a knock on the door. "Come in!" Hunter yells out. The door opens to reveal someone they didn't expect. "Emerald? What are you doing here?" Hunter asks with confusion, and some nervousness. _Goddamn these stupid crushes._

It seems that Emerald holds the same nervousness Hunter does, for a different reason. "Um, hey guys. W-We wanted to come in here and… and apologize for what we did."

"We?" Weiss asks confused.

Emerald looks behind her and sighs. "Get in here." She grabs Mercury by his ear and pulls him inside the room.

"Ow, ow, ok I'm sorry. I'll apologize." Mercury says, holding his ear.

Liz smiles. "I like her."

Emerald takes a deep breath and looks at all of them. "I know that we have done terrible things, and I wouldn't blame you if you don't forgive us. Nevertheless, I still wanted to apologize for it. I will not make any excuses for what we did, it was wrong and we shouldn't have followed Cinder. S-So," Emerald begins to tear up. "We're sorry, for everything. We're so so sorry." She can't hold it in anymore and she sobs.

Nobody gets up for a second, but Hunter soon gets up. He walks over slowly, watching her intently. She looks up at him. "I'm so so sor -" She's cut off as he hugs her. "What?" Before they know it, the rest of team RWBY joins the hug. "Wh-Why are you hugging me? I thought you would hate me."

Ruby is the one to speak up. "You are a good person. You always have been. Sure, you've done terrible things, but I know Cinder was practically forcing you." She then looks at Mercury, who's standing back. "You too Mercury. Get in here." He hesitates, but shrugs his shoulders and joins the group hug. "You are both amazing people, you just made a mistake." Ruby begins to choke out a sob. "We forgive you." Combined with Ruby's sadness, the crying from Emerald and Mercury, and the sappiness of the moment, nobody can hold it in anymore and they all cry together.

As they separate, Emerald wipes her eyes. "Thank you. Thank you so much for forgiving us. We don't deserve it."

Hunter also wipes his eyes and waves his hand. "Don't be ridiculous. Everyone deserves a second chance… and forgiveness." The others nod their heads.

"…Thank you, again." Emerald makes eye contact with all of them, before her eyes fall on Hunter. They stare into each other's' eyes and they can see all the pain they've both gone through. Everybody notices how long they gaze into each other's eyes and immediately get… _ideas_ , especially Shade, who had already pointed it out.

Mercury touches her shoulder, breaking them out of their gaze. "I think it's time to go. Ozpin probably wants to talk to us."

"O-Oh, yeah. Let's go." She slightly stutters, but quickly regains her composure. She walks out with a confident sway of her hips, which mesmerize Hunter.

"Ho-Ho-Ho, lover boy." Yang punches him in the shoulder. "Nice catch."

Hunter immediately blushes a red that resembles Ruby's hair. "Wh-What are you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about cause there's nothing to talk about. Well looks like everybody's done with their plates, bye!" He says so quickly, almost no one can understand what he's saying. He also grabs all the plates in the room, warping to go faster, and immediately leaves, slamming the door behind him.

"Oh, he's so in love." Yang says with a chuckle. Shade chuckles as well. "What are you chuckling about?"

"Nothing, I just remember his crush when I was here. He acted so nervous all the time and it was always so obvious to anyone who payed attention… I see he hasn't changed a bit." He says with a reminiscent smile.

Blake, who was deep in thought, finally speaks up. "Well, I think it's time we finally pay Hunter back."

"What do you mean?" Ruby says with confusion, being her usual self.

"Well, he helped us all get together, didn't he?" He gestures to Weiss, Ruby, herself and Yang. They all nod. "Well I think we should return the favor." She adorns a mischievous smile on her face. The others all realize what she means and they all get the same look on their face… determination and planning.

Shade jumps off the desk suddenly. "Ok, I'm in. How we gonna do this?" They look at him in surprise. "What?"

"Well, you don't exactly seem like the person to get involved in someone's love life." Weiss explains, while the others nod.

"Well I'm not. I only do when that person needs a push… and Hunter always needs a push when it comes to love, it's just how he works." He says with the same smirk Hunter always has.

"Alright well, Liz, are you in?" Blake nods at Liz.

She looks up and sighs after a moment. "Yeah sure, why not?"

Blake smiles wide. "Alright then, Operation Romance Tower is a go." They all stare at her. "What?"

"Romance Tower, really?" Shade looks at her in disbelief. She begins to blush a light pink. "You must be a hopeless romantic just like Hunter." Her blush intensifies.

Liz speaks up. "Yup, definitely a romantic like Hunter."

After everybody finishes laughing at Blake's expense, Ruby speaks up. "So, how are we gonna make Blue Emerald happen?" They look at her strangely. "What, they need a ship name." They laugh it off as another of Ruby's quirks.

"Well," Shade says with a very mischievous smile. "I've got an idea."


	17. Chapter 17

**Ch. 17**

"It better not be dangerous." Liz says with slight worry.

"Well… not dangerous for Hunter. He might get a few new scars, but that's nothing new." Shade has the same smirk Hunter always adorns. RWBY begins to think they know where Hunter got his signature smirk.

"What are you planning?" She responds.

"Remember that huge, ugly dude in my shadow army?"

"Oh no."

"What are you guys talking about?" Weiss looks at them in confusion.

"Well, did Hunter ever tell you that I can go to different dimensions?"

They look at him in complete shock. "He didn't even tell us you existed!" They all say simultaneously.

Shade is taken aback. "What? Really?" They all nod. He looks a little hurt. "You know what, I'm gonna have a talk with that boy." He leaves, slamming the door behind him. A few seconds later, they hear a crash, as Hunter goes through the dorm walls, landing in RWBY's dorm. Shade walks through the hole, staring Hunter down. "You really didn't tell them about us?"

Hunter slowly gets to a kneeling position. "I saw no reason to." The only response he gets is a foot to the face. Hunter flies through the window, going outside. Shade follows him and they soon hear fighting from the two.

Weiss looks at Liz. "Aren't you gonna stop them?" She shakes her head. "Why not?"

"Cause I'm a little hurt. We were a part of his family; he should've at least mentioned us. He deserves whatever happens." They hear another loud crash as Hunter goes through another wall.

"Is this the only way they deal with problems?" Blake asks.

"Fighting?" Blake nods. "…Yup." Liz sees that they're a little worried. "Don't worry. Shade may fight him and even give him scars, but he would never kill Hunter. The only thing that'll happen is they'll both get scars after fighting for a couple hours, and then they'll be fine and act like brothers again. The only time you should worry" She continues. "is when his friends get hurt. If Hunter, I, or you guys get hurt, well… imagine Hunter's full power semblance turned up to a thousand." They gasp, remembering how pissed off, and powerful, Hunter became when they were first attacked... and that's not even close to his full semblance.

"Why would he care if we get hurt? He doesn't even know us." Blake asks in confusion.

"True, but you are Hunter's friends, best friends even. And friends of Hunter's are friends of ours." She smiles

Blake nods. "I've been meaning to ask you." Liz looks at her with interest. "You and Shade have been alive for a long time and have powers beyond our imagining, correct?" Liz nods. "So, why is it that Hunter can defend himself against Shade?" They hear another crash outside.

"Well, I'd usually say that Shade doesn't try, and while he doesn't use his full power with Hunter, he does actually try with him. If he doesn't, Hunter would probably hurt him. Even though they've only trained for a few years, Hunter picked up on the training extremely fast. After only a couple months, Hunter was fast enough to hit Shade. After a year, Hunter lasted more than a few minutes against him. Through the next year, it was actually an even match between the two. Shade was so impressed with him, he actually gave him runes."

They look at her in confusion. "Runes?"

"Runes are markings that enhance someone's power. With Shade, he has many that enhance his speed, power, agility, healing and many others. I have some too." She pulls down her shirt and shows unique looking markings. They stare in interest and shock.

"What's that one?" Ruby points at the one over her heart.

She touches it. "This is a union marking, a symbol of marriage and love between me and Shade." She pulls her shirt back up. "Shade has it over his heart as well."

"So, which runes does Hunter have?" Blake asks with curiosity.

"He has a painless rune, which only activates with his semblance as you know. He also has a stamina rune, a perception rune and a heightened speed rune." Liz counts off her fingers. "Yeah, four runes, which is a great honor for mortals. It's almost unheard of for a mortal to even have one." Liz shows a smile. "But Hunter is definitely a mortal who deserves them. He has mastered Shade's training in record time, but still retains his kindness and courage. Most people would be discouraged by the training and turn cold and cynical, but not Hunter." They all smile and nod, agreeing that Hunter is very kind. It's hard to believe considering what he's gone through, much of which team RWBY still doesn't know about.

"Where are the runes?"

"On his chest and arms."

"Really?" Liz nods. Blake doesn't remember seeing any runes on Hunter's body, just the scars. "But, how? When I saw his scars a couple nights ago, I didn't see any runes."

"Yes, well, Hunter doesn't like to show them. He hides them and makes them the same color as his skin, so it's very hard to notice. The only time you'll see his runes is if he trust you, and he thinks of it, or when he activates them and he doesn't have a shirt on. I swear, that boy, he's so forgetful sometimes. I'm assuming he hasn't showed any of you his runes." They all shake their heads. "Yes well, it's not because he doesn't trust you, it's simply because he doesn't think about it."

Blake nods. "Why does he hide them?"

"He doesn't want anyone to see him as different or above others because of his runes. Most of the time, he doesn't even use them unless he has to." They look a little shocked.

"What about when he was fighting Adam?" Blake asks, still not believing Hunter took him down so easily.

"No, he wasn't using any runes. We know how much the runes enhance him and he wasn't enhanced at all."

"So, he's that fast without the runes?"

"Yup." They're a little shocked by that revelation.

"So," Yang speaks up. "Where did his scars come from?"

Liz hesitates, for the first time. "Well, I'll tell you that some are from training with Shade. Shade actually offered to heal his scars, but Hunter refused, saying that he wanted to keep them as a reminder of how far he came. Other than that, that's for Hunter to tell you."

"Why is that?" Yang asks.

"Well, my husband has an affinity for finding trouble, and Hunter got involved quite a few times. That's all I'll say." Liz says with finality. The others nod as they hear swords clanging and shooting outside.

"How long are they going to fight for?" Ruby asks, looking outside.

"Well, seeing how mad my husband was and the fact that Hunter is a hard-headed stubborn bastard, I'd say at least a couple hours." They all groan.

"Why do they fight for so long?"

"They have stamina enhancement runes, which is one of the two runes Hunter uses on a regular basis."

Weiss thinks she knows what the other one is. "And the other one?"

"Perception."

They all get a look of realization on their face. "So that's how he always notices every single detail." Ruby says as if she just solved a mystery that Sherlock Holmes would have problems with.

"Yes. I almost told Shade not to give him that one, but I went against my better judgement… I've been regretting it ever since."

They laugh. "Why is that?"

"Because he would literally point out every single thing. He'd point out secrets, powers, things that he wasn't supposed to know. It's been a pain in my ass ever since." They all laugh and agree.

"Yeah, it certainly was a pain when he pointed out my feelings for this dolt." Ruby responds to Weiss's comment by putting her arms around her, hugging her tightly.

"Oh come on, you know that you're thankful for it."

"I won't be if you continue suffocating me." Weiss chokes out. Ruby lessens her grip, but still holds on.

"Better?"

"…Yes." She admits quietly.

Liz smiles. "It's rare when you see such love among young souls." Ruby and Weiss separate and blush. She looks at Yang and Blake, the former snickering. "Don't think you're not included in that. The way you went after Adam is a symbol of your love." Yang stops snickering and blushes, as does Blake. "If you want, I could give you the union runes." They each look at their partners.

"Um, I don't think we're ready for that yet." Weiss says, with a blush still present. The others shake their heads, agreeing with Weiss.

"Alright. Just let me know when you are ready and I'll do it." They nod, their blushes still intensifying.

"So, I've noticed that you talk about Hunter like a very good friend, almost as if you've been through a lot together."

Blake is interrupted by Liz. "That's because we have. In the five years we've known him… well, you could say we've had some crazy adventures, especially those two.

"I'd love to hear those stories sometime." Yang says a little excited since she loves stories.

"Yeah, well, maybe another time. By the time they get done, they'll be exhausted and immediately fall asleep. Well, Hunter will, my husband will stay up for a bit."

"Well, at least Hunter finally has someone to challenge him." Ruby remembers the times that he would spar with them and not even break a sweat.

"Let me guess, he sparred against all of you at the same time, didn't he?" They nod. "And he didn't break a sweat?" They nod again. Liz laughs. "Yeah, that's just like him. Every day, he'd always ask Shade to spar with him and if my husband declined, Hunter would attack, basically forcing Shade to defend himself and spar." They all laugh, and then yawn, getting tired from the very eventful day.

At that, they all decided to go to bed, only waking up a few hours later when the boys returned. Blake noticed that Hunter went straight to bed while Shade was up all night, never to sleep.

The next morning she decided to ask Liz why that was only to be responded with a sad look, "He's been through a lot and when he has things to think about, he can't sleep. It's a part of his contract. I just wish he didn't act like it doesn't affect him."

"What do you mean? What contract?" Blake says with a sideways glance to Shade.

"Well as you know I said he's a demon, but that's not the whole truth, the truth is that he's contracted with a demon, which is why he has control of shadows but…"

"But what?" as she noticed Shade disappeared.

"It'd be better if he explained it when he's ready."

"Okay" Blake said a little disappointed. "Where'd he go anyway?"

"Oh, come on you'll want to see this. It's quite the sight." The two of them race outside and Blake notices it's still a little dark out. Finally, after leaving the campus grounds and entering the forest's, Blake begins to notice a weird presence, almost magical that's really strong. She begins to worry when Liz suddenly stops, "What's going o-" "Shh… he'll hear you." She cuts her off sharply.

It's then that Blake sees it. Shade, in the middle of a clearing, practicing. He quickly swings his one sword with amazing speed. Neither of them can keep up with his speed. After watching him for a couple minutes, he stops and summons some of his shadow army. They attack, but are no match for him as he parries each attack and counters with amazing speed. He takes 20 of them out in 5 seconds,but that's not what caught Blake's attention. She was too focused on the markings on his body. There were so many. At first, all she could notice were the tattoos/markings that looked like they had been burned on. It wasn't until Liz pointed them out, that Blake noticed the runes, and then the hundreds of scars, and before she even knew it, she was crying. Liz just kind of stared at her, not understanding why she was crying, "How come you're crying?" Liz asked concern evident on her face.

"What happened...h-how is it that he has so many scars?" Blake is barely able to speak between the sobs. Liz seemed very surprised at the way Blake responded to seeing Shades scars, "Well, child that's a long story that I can't tell by myself."


	18. Chapter 18

**Ch. 18**

"Ugh." Hunter's eyes open slowly. "Ah hell. What time is it?" He looks at the clock, wishing it wasn't true. **5:34 AM.** _Dammit. It's too early to be up after our fight last night._ He looks around and sees Shade staring out the window and the others sleeping.

He slowly gets up, groaning from the soreness. He walks over to Shade and looks at his eyes. _Not too glossed over, so he's available to talk._ "What's up?"

"Nothing." Shade responds immediately.

"You didn't see anything throughout the night?" Shade shakes his head. "Good. I'm way too sore to fight again."

Shade finally turns and looks at Hunter, a playful look in his eyes. "Don't you recover almost as fast as me?"

Hunter smiles. "Yeah, but that takes a little bit. We didn't get back until like 3 in the morning. I need more than a couple hours to heal." Shade just smiles back and looks outside once more. Hunter rubs his neck. "So, I've been meaning to ask you," Shade makes no response, but Hunter didn't expect him to. "why did you leave for so long? When you left, you said it would only be for a few months, I haven't seen you in two years. What happened?" He asks, slightly exasperated.

Shade just sighs. "I ran into trouble."

"When do you not?"

Shade smiles and continues. "Yes, but this was different. It was somebody very powerful, somebody who actually forced me to use some power."

Hunter becomes curious. "How much?"

"40%" Hunter's eyes widen. 50% power is the highest amount of power Shade will consciously and willingly use against an enemy. He begins to lose control after that since the more power he uses, the more demon he becomes. He's never seen him use 50% power but Shade has fought him with 40%, and that was extremely difficult. _Got a couple new scars that day._ "Yeah, it was a crazy battle. Almost died since he caught me off guard a couple times."

"Was he a demon or…"

"No… he was an angel."

"An Angel? Really?" Shade nods. Hunter had heard stories of the angels before. Their holy weapons affected all, the angels, demons, shadows, ghosts, mortals, whatever. They were trained in a specific art of fighting no one could learn unless they were an angel themselves. And even then, they had to pass multiple levels of testing, each level harder than the one before. "What did he do?"

"Gave me quite a few new scars." He pushes aside his trench coat and lifts the right side of his shirt up, revealing 3 new scars Hunter hadn't seen before. He saw it amongst the dozens of other scars from other battles. Some of the scars were actually from Hunter. Neither felt guilty about the scars they gave each other. For Shade, scars were a part of his daily life. For Hunter, it was a reminder of how much he's done and how far he's come.

Shade doesn't even look at Hunter the whole time, but Hunter didn't mind. He was used to it by now. "Luckily, I killed him before he could do some major damage." He pulls his shirt back down.

"…Good." Hunter responds coldly. He had learned to accept death and killing from a very young age. Both because of what happened to his father and because of Shade. Shade doesn't hold back against his enemies, never hesitating to kill. Soon enough, Hunter didn't hesitate either. "To tell you the truth, I don't know what I'd do if you actually died." Hunter continues sadly.

"Yeah well, if it's any consolation, I feel the same way about you." Hunter's eyes widen and become a little brighter. "If I had heard you died or if I watched you die, I would never stop hunting down the people who did it." Shade finally turns to Hunter. "You're like a son to me." Hunter doesn't respond and instead hugs Shade. At first, he hesitates, but Shade hugs him back, not as tightly though.

"And you've been like a father to me. Thank you." Hunter is very grateful for all Shade has done for him, and it's conveyed through his voice. They separate and Hunter yawns. He looks at the clock. **5:49 AM.** "Well, Imma go back to sleep. Night." Shade simply nods and Hunter, feeling safe, easily drifts to sleep, knowing Shade is there to protect them. He still had many more questions about the angel, but he decided to save it for tomorrow.

When he awakes, he feels refreshed and ready for the day. He looks at the clock as he bounds off the bed. **8:04 AM.** _Eh, only got a few hours, but it's enough._ Hunter has never needed much sleep to get through the day. He's been awake for two weeks straight, fighting every couple days as well. _That was an interesting time… and a very long story._ Not to say he doesn't enjoy sleep. He loves feeling refreshed after a full night's sleep, he just doesn't need it.

As he heads towards the shower, he takes notice that some people are missing. Shade is missing from his spot on the desk and Blake and Liz aren't in Blake's bed. Liz slept on Blake's bed. Ruby is a cuddler and that wouldn't go well with Liz, Weiss snores a bit too loud to be sleeping right next to her, and Yang can get a bit… _grabby_ during the night. Blake is the only one who stays almost completely still throughout the night. He sighs. _Well, I guess I should look for them… after my shower._

After his short shower, he leaves the dorm unworried. He knows that if Blake is with Liz and Shade, she's safe. _Well, physically safe. Not sure about mentally._ He walks through Beacon, looking around. He didn't expect them to be in the main areas of Beacon and instead heads for the forest, knowing Shade enjoys training in nature.

He stays observant the whole way through the forest, making sure he doesn't miss any clue as to where his friends are. He activates his perception rune and feels the enhancement running through his body, ending in his eyes. Ten minutes after entering the forest, he finally hears the familiar sound of Shade's training. _A lot of grunting, yelling, and cutting._ He calmly walks toward the sound, now listening and watching the forest. The outdoors and nature had always fascinated him. As a child, he loved to go for walks through the forests, just watching the animals.

He sees a dark blue mockingbird, one of his favorite birds. He whistles a tune and the bird perfectly mimics it. Hunter smiles and continues on, seeing other birds as well. Some robins, other mockingbirds and a crow. He watches the crow intently, getting the feeling it's not what it seems. The bird looks at him and stares into his eyes for a few seconds, before flying away. Hunter continues through the forest, now a little more cautious.

He finally reaches the clearing in which Shade is training. As he walks through the bushes, he sees him cut through 3 of his shadow warriors in less than a second. He then adorns a mischievous smile. _Let's see if he's paying attention._ He quietly summons one of his pistols and aims directly at Shade. Once it's lined up, he shoots, but as expected, Shade cuts the bullet in half. He turns around with a smile. "Really? Do you wanna fight again?"

Hunter just walks into the clearing, unarmed. "Nah, just wanted to test your reflexes." They fist bump and smile brightly.

"Sure. Sometimes, I get the feeling that you're just trying to kill me."

"Don't tempt me." Hunter smiles wide. "So, you wanna say hi to your admirers in the bushes?" Hunter turns to the left, in the exact direction Blake and Liz are hiding. Neither of them are surprised and simply stand up. Shade, however, was surprised to see Blake. He knew Liz was there, since she sometimes would watch his training, but he didn't expect the faunus to be watching.

He looks at her and sees that Blake is staring at his scars. He points at one across his chest. "This one was from Liz." Everybody laughs, except Liz.

"Yeah, because you were being an idiot." She tries to say it seriously, but ultimately fails and reveals a small smile.

Shade smiles wide and they know he's gonna say something he probably shouldn't. "Nah, it's because you liked the se-" He flies through the forest, multiple trees crashing down. Everybody knew what he was going to say and was glad Liz stopped were surprised when Shade appeared behind Liz draping his arms over her and giving her a loving kiss. They didn't expect Shade to show much emotion. "So what were the two of you doing here?" He asked still holding on to Liz.

"Just watching. I wanted to show Blake some of your skill and training." She still looks at him very lovingly and they can see so many emotions. Love, fear, pain, lust, passion, desire, whatever emotion you can think of.

"As sappy and cute this moment is, please don't start ripping each other's clothes off. I'm still scarred from last time… mentally and physically!" Liz and Shade laugh as Blake wonders what happened that day.

"What happened?" Blake voices her wonder.

"NO!" Hunter interrupts. "Just no!"

"Why not?"

"They will show you… and you do not want to see it. Trust me."

"We're not gonna do shit like that, you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time" Shade explains, a mischievous smile still present on his face.

"Aren't I always?"

"Usually." They all smile, including Blake.

"Well, I guess we should probably head back." Hunter looks at Shade. "Unless you wanna train a bit."

Shade smiles wide. "I still gotta meditate, but I do love a challenge."

"Well, let's meditate then." Shade nods and leads Hunter towards the middle of the clearing. They both sit down, cross their legs, and breathe deeply.

And before Blake knew it Shade began to float, and after a few minutes, so did Hunter "What the hell?"

"They're concentrated their chi to such a high degree that it radiates off of them causing them to float." Liz explains with a weird look in her eyes, almost as if she was about to cry, as she watches Shade.

They watch as Hunter and Shade float a few feet in the air, breathing steadily. What Blake and Liz can't see is the joining of the two consciousnesses. Hunter and Shade can see each other's thoughts. Shade is able to hold back some thoughts however, so Hunter can't see it. However, Hunter isn't as experienced with meditating like this and so, Shade can see all of his thoughts and secrets; although, there are no secrets that Shade doesn't know about. They stayed in the air for about 30 minutes, leaving Blake and Liz alone.

During that time, Liz and Blake just talked; Blake never asking, but still wondering, why Liz looked at Shade like she did. "So, have you and Yang been together long?" Blake blushes but stays composed. "I'm assuming a year at least."

"It actually happened a few days ago." Liz's eyes go wide.

"Really?" Blake nods. "Wow, I just thought from how much love you hold for each other, it would've been longer." Blake is no longer able to hold her blush back. Liz simply smiles. "How did it happen?"

"Well, a couple days ago, it was Christmas and there were mistletoes and… well you can figure it out from there."

"Well that's great, you guys look good together, and seem like you will cherish each other no matter what. Keep it like that because there may come a time where you may lose each other for sometime." She sighs, "Keep her in your heart and nothing will break you. Trust me, I know."

Blake looks sad, but nods. "I will."

"Have you guys… _done_ anything yet" Liz says with a mischievous smirk.

Blake blushes and pushes Liz. Liz simply laughs.

As they stayed there giggling, Hunter comes over wondering what was so funny, but decided it was better not to ask."I think it's about time we head back I'm sure the others are starting to worry." Hunter says looking rather refreshed.

As they begin to walk away all but Liz jump at the loud crackle of lightning. Turning around they begin to notice that Shade is still floating there, but something was off. He was surrounded by a circle of white lightning shooting off, around him as Shadows begin to creep toward him.

"You two get back to the dorm!" Liz yells seeming panicked.

"Whats happe-"

"NOW!"

 **A little later at the dorm**

"Really?" Yang looks bewildered.

"Yeah, it was pretty weird." Hunter paces in deep thought. "I've never seen him do that before."

"I wonder what was happening?" Blake sits there pondering.

"I don't know," Hunter sighs, "but what I do know is I haven't seen Liz panic like that in a long time." "It's best not to worry, they'll handle it." His voice held conviction, but in truth, he wasn't actually confident.

"Okay" Blake responds, still not fully convinced.

"You hungry?"

"I could eat."

"Let's go"

As they walk, Hunter notices that Blake is still very worried. _To be honest, I'm pretty worried myself._ He puts his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, they can handle themselves." Blake looks him in the eyes and nods, feeling a little better.

RWHBY spends the next couple hours eating and worrying. At the two hour mark, Hunter stands up. "I'm gonna look for them."

"I'll go with you." Blake says with determination.

"No, I'll go alone." Blake opens her mouth to retort. "Look, I know you're worried, but Shade can be pretty delicate with certain things. I don't want any of you to get hurt. Plus, I can find them faster by myself with my observation training."

"You mean your perception rune?" Hunter looks at Weiss, eyes wide.

"How did you know about that?"

"Liz told us."

Hunter sighs. "How much did she tell you?"

"You have 4 runes, perception, stamina, speed, and the painless rune that only activates with your semblance. You hide them by making them the same color as your skin."

Hunter sighs once more. "Ok, well, I promise I'll tell you more about it, but it'll be easier if Shade and Liz are here." The others nod as Hunter leaves the dorm, intent on finding his friends.


	19. Chapter 19

**Ch. 19**

 _ **A/N: Sup hunters and huntresses? I just wanted to warn you guys that this chapter is mainly smut and contains yuri (girl-on-girl). I have marked where it begins and ends so you can skip past it if you do not feel comfortable reading it.**_

 _ **Also, this is my first attempt at smut so please enjoy and give some constructive criticism if you do decide to read it.**_

 **Dorm Room**

"Ruby and I are gonna go talk to Ozpin, We'll be back." Weiss explains, waving as she leaves.

Blake waves back. "Okay we'll see you later."

"See ya" yells Yang, waving them out. She turns around. "I bet that's not all they're gonna do." She has a very suggestive smirk on her face, until she notices Blake's mood. "Hey," She walks closer. "are you alright?"

"I-I don't know. I have a bad feeling, like something's going to happen." Before she can continue her list of worries, Yang hugs her tightly. She hugs her back after a second, just as tightly.

"It'll be ok, I promise."

They separate and Blake looks into Yang's eyes. "I'm just so worried something will happen to you." Yang shows confusion on her face. _Why is she so worried about me?_

Blake sighs and turns around before continuing. "When the WhiteFang-Grimm army attacked, when Adam hurt you, I was so worried. I-I" She chokes on a sob. Yang tries to wrap her in a hug again but Blake pushes her back. "No, I-I need to say this." Yang simply nods, waiting for Blake to say what she needs to. "When I saw you fly through the air, no movement and… and blood coming from your stomach, I was so worried. I thought I was going to lose you and I can't! I can't lose you Yang." Blake starts to sob.

Yang can't take it anymore and hugs her tightly, stroking her cat ears. "You won't lose me. I'll make sure of it."

"You don't know that." Blake's tears begin to soak through her clothes, but Yang doesn't care. The only thing she cares about right now is her kitten.

"… No, I don't know it." Yang separates and looks down on Blake, gazing into her eyes with love. "But damn it if I'm not gonna try my hardest to make sure that we don't lose each other. And you know how I get when I try."

Blake smiles and nods. "You don't give up and you always succeed."

"Exactly." Yang pulls her close once again, beginning to lean close. "You're not the only one afraid to lose." Blake is the one to close the distance, pushing their lips together with force and passion. Yang doesn't mind and puts her hands on Blake's back, pulling her even closer. Her hand slowly goes lower and Blake knows what Yang wants… and she's gonna give it to her.

Blake pushes Yang back on her bed and begins to straddle her hips. Yang smiles wide. "I've wanted to see you like this for a long time."

Blake leans close, kissing her collarbone, before leaning close to her ear. "You're not the only one."

 **Smut Scene Begins**

Blake begins to slowly gyrate her hips against Yang's. At the same time, she kisses Yang's ear and slowly moves down, kissing every few inches. When she gets to her neck, she kisses a sweet spot and gently bites it. Yang moans loudly. Her neck had always been a very sensitive spot for her. Blake smiles against Yang's skin. She kisses the same spot three more times before moving down again. She gets to Yang's chest and kisses in between the two mountains of flesh.

"Please stop teasing me." Yang is breathing heavily now, still not believing she's actually going to have soe. She pulls them off and throws them in another direction. She sits up and looks at the blond me _fun_ with her little pussy-cat.

Blake ignores her and continues kissing. She then undoes Yang's overcoat, throwing it to the side without a care of where it landed. She moves to the top that barely constricts Yang's impressive assets and practically rips it off. She thinks she throws the top in the same direction as the other article of clothing, but she's not really sure. In the moment, she doesn't give a single shit. In reality, the first layer of clothing ended up on the bedpost of Ruby's disaster bed while the top landed on the doorknob.

She then moves to Yang's shorts, undoing the button with more speed than she was beforbeauty under her. "You're so beautiful."

Yang responds by catching Blake's lips with her own, pouring all lust and desire that she holds into the kiss, which is a lot. Without warning, Yang flips them over so Blake's on bottom and she's on top. Blake didn't make any sound of surprise and instead looked at Yang with a wide smile of her own. "What, I can't be on top?"

Yang kisses her jaw a few times. "Another time. Right now, I wanna make you feel good." She moves lower, going faster than Blake did. She slowly undoes Blake's kimono. Blake sits up and takes off the kimono herself, throwing it not too far from the bed, before laying back down. Yang then removes the top Blake wears under her kimono and throws it next to the desk. Yang moves down and pulls off Blake's shorts and leggings.

When she sits back up, she takes in the full view of her kitten being under her, only wearing a simple matching set, a black bra and a back pair of panties. "Wow… you're hot."

Blake smiles. "You certainly know how to make a girl feel special huh." She then moans as Yang suddenly rubs her entrance through her panties.

She leans closer to her ear. "You ain't seen nothing yet."

"Then show me." Yang smiles wide and slowly rubs through Blake's panties.

"You're so wet." Yang kisses her passionately. When Blake moans, Yang takes the opportunity and slips her tongue in, making her moan even more. Their tongues do a dance for dominance for a couple minutes before Yang finally wins. Yang explores Blake's mouth more than ever, smiling wide the whole time.

She moves her hand behind Blake's back, unhooking her bra with one hand. They separate only for a second so Blake can remove her bra before they crash their lips back together. Yang pulls back and slowly moves down Blake's body. She kisses each of the small peaks of Blake's C cup breasts, eliciting a moan from the cat-girl under her.

"My God your moans are so sexy." Yang moves further down, kissing as every inch as she goes. Soon enough, she gets to Blake's panties. Yang's hot breath makes Blake shiver in desire and lust. Yang kisses the inside of Blake's left thigh and then goes to her right thigh. Every few kisses, she switches and goes higher than she was before, the whole time stroking Blake's legs.

After a few minutes, Blake can barely take it anymore. "Y-Yang, ple-please."

"Please what kitten?"

Blake feels like glaring at her, but is already feeling exhausted from all the teasing. "Come on Yang."

"No Blake-y, I wanna hear you say it." She hears Blake mumble something. "What was that?"

"Please fuck me." Blake almost yells, wanting some type of release.

"Your wish is my command." Yang stops kissing her thighs and goes to the top of Blake's panties. She grabs the hem with her teeth and pulls them off, looking Blake in the eye the whole time. Once the thin barrier was out of the way, Yang comes close to what she's wanted for a while; however, she's still not sure. She looks at Blake with a questioning look on her face and Blake simply nods, understanding what Yang was asking.

Yang smiles and slowly licks Blake's entrance from the bottom to the top. Blake immediately moans out, the teasing having built up so much pressure, she knows she can't last for long. Yang picks up on this and wants to make sure Blake feels the best she ever has. Before Blake can react, Yang darts her tongue into Blake. "Yaaaaang!" She grabs Yang's head as she moans. Yang continues, increasing her speed with every movement. Blake becomes a writhing mess in a matter of seconds, totally at Yang's mercy.

She feels the pressure building up every second Yang pleasures her and when she finally feels her release coming, Yang stops. "Yang, what the he-" She's cut off by two things. One, Yang crashes her lips against Blake's. Second, the new feeling of fingers being thrusted inside her. She moans into Yang's mouth so loud, you can almost hear it outside the dorm room. Yang increases her speed with every second, adding a second finger at the twenty second mark, then a third at the thirty second mark. Blake feels her climax coming even faster than it did before.

"Y-Ya…" Blake can't finish her sentence from the pleasure she feels, the amount of which increasing every second. "Yaa-YAAAAAAANG!" Blake yells out as she finally climaxes. Yang slows down to help her through her feeling of Nirvana. She moans and pants as she begins to calm down. After a few minutes, Blake finally comes down from her high and catches her breath. Yang takes her fingers out and puts them in her mouth, licking the juices off. She does this while looking Blake in the eye.

Blake grabs Yang's hand and pulls her down on top of her. They kiss passionately, this time with more love than lust. After separating, Yang puts her hand on Blake's cheek. No words are exchanged, just one loving gaze into each other's eyes. Blake pulls her in once more and they kiss, except this time, Blake pulls a "Yang" and flips them over so she's on top. "We're not done just yet."

Yang smiles wide. "I didn't want it to end anyway." Blake smiles back and goes down to Yang's chest. She kisses the valley in between the two ample breasts, before moving to kiss the sides and tops of them. Soon enough, the bra gets in her way so she reaches behind her to find the hook, but to her confusion, she can't find it. "Allow me." Yang reaches to the front of her bra and unhooks it there. She slips it off and throws it to the side.

Blake just looks at the chest she had come to stare at in the middle of class. "Aren't you gonna do something?" Yang smirks. Blake immediately responds, grabs both of them, and begins to grope gently. Yang moans slightly. Her chest had never been that sensitive before. That was about to change as Blake begins to lick the hard, pink nipple. Yang moans out in a pleasure she had never felt from simple boob play. "Oh God. Why does that feel so good?"

Blake knows exactly why. This wasn't her first time handling a girl. "My cat tongue. It has certain… _features._ " Yang's mind goes wild with the thought of what it'll feel like when Blake goes further down. Over the next couple minutes, Blake keeps switching between the two peaks, giving each one ample attention. Finally, Blake stops and gives Yang a kiss before heading further down. _Finally, I wanna see how that tongue of hers does._ Yang can't help but think. She certainly enjoyed the teasing, but she wanted to get to the good stuff.

Rather than teasing as Yang did, Blake got straight to the point and pulled Yang's lace panties off. After throwing them to the side, she stops and lets the sight hit her. _I can't believe I'm actually doing this._ She smiles wide, seeing Yang at her total and complete mercy improved her mood quite a bit… which would mean good things for Yang. She slowly begins to rub Yang's entrance, going in circles first. "Oh yes!" Yang moans out, feeling the pressure slowly build up.

Blake smiles. "I can see you're enjoying this."

"Sh-Shut up" Yang can barely get out as Blake hits a sensitive spot. Blake keeps rubbing as she leans in closer to Yang, remembering the sensitive spot on her neck. She immediately goes there and kisses it. "Oh God!" Yang moans almost immediately. From the combined constant stimulation and the sensitive spot on her neck, Yang starts to grab the bedsheets with a death grip. And it only got better, or worse, for Yang. Blake then uses her left hand, the one currently not doing anything, and grabs Yang's left breast. She gropes it a little rougher than she did before, wanting to elicit a response, which she got. "O-Oh, don-don't stop, please."

"Wasn't planning on it." Blake adorns a seductive voice that makes Yang even more worked up. After a few minutes of constant stimulation, Blake notices Yang won't last much longer. She gives Yang one last kiss and moves back down. She stops rubbing and instead replaces her fingers with her tongue, darting in and out.

Yang immediately responds. "OH MY GOD!" Blake smiles and increases her speed. She then inserts two fingers and looks for a certain spot. As she searches, Yang lets out a sharp gasp. _There it is._ She focuses her fingers on hitting that specific spot every thrust, while also eating her out. Yang begins to writhe and grabs Blake's head. "Oh-OH my, don't stop, DON'T stop!" Yang isn't even moaning anymore and instead almost whining. Blake speeds up, her tongue and fingers going in and out so fast, it's almost a blur. Yang's whines grow more and more high-pitched over the next 10 minutes until finally "BLAAAAAAAAAAKE!" Yang screams Blake's name as she finally cums.

Blake smiles wide, proud she was able to make Yang scream her name like that. She continues to thrust her fingers in and out, but slows down much more. Yang pants hard as she comes down from her sex high. She finally looks at Blake… and has the biggest grin she's ever seen. "Oh my God! I've never felt like that before!"

"Glad I could be of service."

Yang rolls her eyes. "Dork." She says, still trying to catch her breath. "Come here." Blake slowly crawls up to Yang and Yang slowly brings their lips together. Yang can taste herself on Blake's soft lips and it makes her almost ready for round 2… _almost._

 **Smut Scene Ends**

As they separate from their kiss, they gaze into each other's eyes lovingly, both panting and sweat beads falling from their faces. Blake smiles. "Thank you. I really needed that."

"Well, I'd like to this a lot more. Not just when it's needed." Yang has a huge grin.

Blake nods. "We'll definitely do this more."

Yang leans in "Good." and closes the distance between them once more. The kiss starts out lovingly but begins to get more heated and intense. They finally have to separate for air after a minute. "Hey, I wanted to ask," Blake looks into her eyes. "where'd you learn to do that?"

Blake smiles. "I don't kiss and tell."

"Ah come on, tell me."

Blake shakes her head. "That's a story for another time. For now," She lays on Yang's right side, back to the wall. "I just wanna lay here with you."

Yang was about to ask again, but Blake kissed the back of her neck, eliciting another moan from the busty blonde. "Ok, I'm alright with that." Blake keeps kissing her neck, getting Yang more and more worked-up. "If you keep doing that, we're gonna go for a round two."

Blake leans close to her ear. "Who said I don't want that?" Her hot breath hitting her ear and the back of her neck causes Yang to shiver, not to mention the seductive tone of Blake's voice. Blake kisses her neck a couple more times and Yang can't take it anymore. She twists around and straddles Blake's stomach. Blake smiles an ear-to-ear grin.

"How about I show you a few new things?" Yang uses a lust-heavy voice.

"I definitely wouldn't mind that." They kiss once more as they begin one of the many rounds that day.


	20. Chapter 20

**Ch. 20**

"Ugh I'm exhausted, I shouldn't have done that, but I had to find-"

As he began to open the door, "Yaa-YAAAAAAANG,"

"And nevermind I can wait. let's just close this door like nothing happened."

Shade tapes a DO NOT ENTER sign on the door, and walks a little down the hallway before collapsing.

"I haven't been this weak in a long time." He says exasperated. "It's been too long since I've split my consciousness. I need t-" He passes out on the hallway floor.

Two hours pass as Shade sits unconscious on the floor, Blake and Yang stay in the dorm, and Hunter still searches for Shade. In the dorm, Yang and Blake lay on the bed, panting. "I've wanted to try that position for a long time." Yang can barely get it out, since she's exhausted from the many rounds.

"Me too." Blake turns on her side and stares into Yang's eyes. "I'm happy I could try it with you." Yang leans in and gives her a gentle kiss.

"So am I."

Blake sits up and stretches as she gets up. Yang's eyes immediately travel down as Blake walks to the bathroom. "I'm taking a shower."

"Ok." Blake adds an extra sway to her hip before she enters the bathroom and closes the door. Yang lays there for a few minutes before she finally gets up. She looks around for her clothes, but is having a lot of trouble. She finds her underwear on the floor right next to the bed and her top on the doorknob. _Alright, easy enough. Just gotta find the rest._ She looks around the room and finally finds her jacket on Ruby's bed. _How'd it get up there?_ She reaches up and grabs it.

She has her underwear and top on and her coat is on Blake's bed. _Now just to find my shorts._ She looks around but can't find it. Soon enough, she starts to check behind the beds, under the beds, anywhere it could possibly be. _Where the hell is it?_ She then notices a certain shade of black under the desk. _Finally._ She grabs it from under and behind the desk. _How did that even happen?_ She visibly shrugs and puts it on. She then grabs her skirt, which she didn't remember had been taken off, and her jacket and gets finished up.

She smooths down her clothes and hair before opening the dorm room door. The first thing she notices was a big piece of paper taped on the door that said DO NOT ENTER. _Who the hell?_ She walks out and looks to the left first. _Nothing._ She turns to the right and sees something she didn't expect. _Shade? What's he doing here?_ "Hey Shade." No response. "Shade?" Not even a twitch. She walks over cautiously and puts her right hand on his left shoulder. "Shade, you alright?" She shakes him and he still doesn't respond. "Well shit."

 **In the Forest**

"Where the hell are they?!" Hunter punches a tree in frustration. He's been looking for Shade and Liz for over an hour now, or, that's what he thought. _Actually, what time is it?_ When he pulls his fist from the tree, it's almost completely broken in half, only a few pieces still holding it together. _Whoops._ He pulls his phone, courtesy of Ozpin a few months ago, from his pocket. He turns it on. **3:01 PM** the phone displays in the center of the screen. _What the hell?! I've been searching for over three hours now!?_

Hunter simply sighs and puts his phone back into his pocket. "Where else could they be? I've searched practically every part of this forest!" He then decides to do something he wouldn't normally do. He thinks about the pain he's gone through and activates his semblance, but only to a low level. His semblance not only activates his painless rune, but also enhances his other runes. He channels most of the energy into his eyes, enhancing his perception rune even more. _Alright, time for one last-_

 _Snap!_ Hunter reacts immediately, turning around with one pistol in each hand. He sees nothing, but knows something is there. Instead of yelling out, he finds a place to hide.

The mysterious follower waits behind the tree, listening for Hunter's movements, but hears none. Soon enough, she gets curious and peeks around the tree slowly. _Where'd he go?_ She walks out, still very cautious. She walks a few feet before she's in the same spot Hunter was just in. "Where did you go?"

Hunter eyes his prey from the tree above. He can't make out very many features because of multiple branches and leaves in his way, but he knows they were spying. He slowly gets into a low position on the branch and jumps out, landing straight on top of the snooper. He lands on her back, causing her to lie face down in the grass. He grabs her shoulder and begins to turn her. "What are you doi-" His next words are caught in his throat as he stares into the eyes of the spy. _Red._

After a brief few seconds of surprise from being caught, Emerald blushes. "Sorry. I just saw you leaving and you looked really worried, so I followed you so I could know what was going on." Almost everything she says isn't registered by Hunter's brain immediately. He's still frozen there, above her body, staring at her. "Hunter, are you alright?"

He shakes his head, trying to regain his composure. "Uh, yeah. Sorry, I was just really surprised that you followed me. I could've seen Blake or Ruby, definitely." He smiles and Emerald lets out a small giggle.

She then looks down and blushes. "Um, do you maybe, wanna, you know…" She gestures to how close they are. Hunter takes a second and looks down and see how close they are.

His eyes go wide as he immediately shoots up, warping in order to go a couple feet away. "Sorry!" He yells out quickly. He then turns around, looking back at Emerald. "I should go, bye!" He says quickly before running. He didn't get far, however, as he tripped on something. "Ahh, what the hell?" He looks behind him and sees one of the people he was looking for. "Liz!" He stands up and jogs over.

Emerald joins and looks at her with worry. "Is she ok?"

He shakes her shoulder. "I don't know yet." He shakes her more and more, addressing her by her name many times.

A few moments of shaking and Liz finally emits a response. "Stop fucking yelling at me or I'll burn you with lightning."

Hunter stops and smiles. "Yup, she's alright." Liz opens her eyes and groans once again. "Liz, do you know what happened?"

"Ugh, it's a little foggy. There—There was Shade and-and… Oh shit!" She tries to jump up but she almost falls over.

Hunter quickly catches her. He catches the sight of some red on the tree and some more near her head. He parts some of her brown hairs in the back and sees some blood. "You're hurt. Let's get you ba-"

"I'm fine Goddammit!" She tries to support herself, but almost falls over.

Hunter grabs her once again. "No you're not!" She looks at him in surprise. It's rare when Hunter raises his voice against her. "You have some heavy bleeding in the back of your head. You could have brain damage for all I fucking know and I won't lose anyone else! Now, we're going back to the dorm and getting you checked, GOT IT!?"

Liz's widened-eyes close and she lets out a sigh. "Fine."

"Good." Hunter puts Liz's right arm over his shoulder, while Emerald puts the other over her shoulder. Hunter looks at Emerald and smiles appreciatively. She simply gives him a look that says _No problem._ They begin their journey back to the dorms, none of them knowing that soon, they will have to defend themselves once more.

 **Later in the Dorm**

 _Knock, Knock_ "Anyone in there, would you mind opening the door?"

"Coming, hold on," Blake says putting on her kimono. Almost as soon as she opens the door, Hunter and Emerald practically fall in with Liz on their shoulders. "Whoa, what the hell happened to her?"

"I don't know, but have you seen Shade? I need to talk to him." Hunter says with a little frustration evident in his voice.

"Yea, he's lying right there, but don't even think about trying anything."

"I'll do it if I want." he says raising his voice slightly.

"Then I'll let Yang smash your face in." Blake says not joking in the slightest.

It was then that Hunter calmed down enough to actually look over at Shade, when he noticed Yang sitting on the bed with Shade laying on her. Her eyes were red, both from anger, and what looked like crying. She was gently stroking his head and applying a cold rag to his head, but what really caught his attention was the fact that Shade was barely breathing and was very pale.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize. It's just, he was one of my only friends for years. I'm worried." he sighs as he sets Liz down. "Blake, could you take care of Liz. Her head's bleeding pretty badly"

"Of course." Blake says, glad that Hunter finally calmed down, and begins to prepare the first aid kit. "So what exactly happened?" Blake questions, "Shade's been out since we found him, so we don't know anything."

"Liz still hasn't been able to tell us anything, the only thing we got from her was-"OH SHIT!"" Hunter explained, "So yeah, don't know anything." Hunter walks over to the bed, which currently holds a distressed Yang and unconscious Shade. "Where did you find him?"

"I found him collapsed outside in the hallway, almost cold to the touch." Yang said her voice still quivering with worry.

Hunter sits on the bed and activates his perception rune. Despite his best efforts, there's no visible clues as to what happened. "Goddammit!" He says in frustration, before sighing again.

"What?" Yang finally looks up and Hunter sees that this is really affecting her.

"I didn't see anything. There's nothing on him that can tell me what happened." He stands up and begins pacing.

"What is he doing?" Emerald is helping Blake bandage Liz's head.

Blake looks at him and then continues her bandaging. "It helps him think. He paces whenever he really needs to think or is worried."

"Which one is it this time?"

Blake looks at him again. "I-I don't know." Emerald looks at him with worry. She feels a soft hand placed on her shoulder and she turns back to Blake. "I know you're worried, but trust me, he'll be fine."

Emerald looks at her closely. "You're just saying that so I stop worrying, aren't you?"

Blake smiles. "Well, looks like we've got another observant one. Please try not to be a pain in the ass like Hunter was." Emerald smiles back.

Hunter continues his nervous pacing, trying to go back through the recent events. _Ok, we were meditating for a half hour before it happened. That had to be a reason for it._ He then thinks back to something he saw during his meditation. At the time, he didn't think anything of it, just a memory of Shade's. _But, maybe it wasn't._

He stops pacing and everyone immediately notices. He then sits down on the floor, legs-crossed, and takes deep breaths. "What are you doing?" Yang looks at him in confusion. She was used to his pacing, but not this.

"Yang, don't disturb him. I think I know what he's trying to do." Yang looks at Blake in confusion. "Do you trust me?" Yang, without hesitation, nods. "Good. Just let him do his thing."

They all watch as Hunter sits there, deep breaths being the only thing heard in the dorm. After a few moments, he begins to rise. Emerald and Yang stare in awe of the sight before them. He floats a few feet in the air before they begin to see blue flames surround him, similar to when his semblance is activated, but this time they're much more concentrated. A line of fire begins to separate from the rest, going directly towards Shade. The tendrils of the fire begin to lightly feel across Shade. Finally, it reaches his head and the thin line becomes much thicker. The tendrils of the fire actually begin to form distinct fingers. "I'm sorry old friend." They all hear from Hunter before the tips of the fingers begin to go through Shade's forehead, accessing his mind.

 **Hunter's POV**

 _Focus, focus, focus!_ I keep yelling at myself. If I don't do this right and lose my focus, who knows what could happen? I could blow up, Shade could blow up, the dorm could be destroyed… again. I focus all of my power into this. My chi, my semblance, my will, and… something else. Something I can't describe, only feel. I focus everything and soon enough, I feel my energy separating from me. _Good start. Now just to move it._

I focus the most I've ever had to and I feel my energy slowly moving away from me. I move toward the most powerful energy I can feel in the room and attempt to connect. _Come on!_ I can my energy moving across Shade's body. I finally get to his head and the realization of what this could do hits me. I allow myself only a split second of speech. "I'm sorry old friend." I focus all of the surrounding chi into a hand and I penetrate Shade's mind.

 _Ah shit._ I'm face down on the floor. I slowly open my eyes and groan a few more times. "What the fuck happened?" I wonder aloud. I finally stand up, holding my head. I look around and notice something. _This isn't the dorm._ I look around and everything's pitch black. "AH SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK?!" I feel a very sharp stinging in my head. I hold my head for a moment before it finally passes. "What is that?" I feel something running down from my nose and ears. I feel each place and look at my hands. _Blood. Well shit. This was a bad idea._

"You're damn right it was." I turn towards the voice. Or rather, my voice. I see myself standing there, covered in blood and staring at me with a crazed look. "What were you thinking, trying to make friends, trying to live a normal life? YOU'LL NEVER LIVE A NORMAL LIFE!" A light shines behind him and- Oh God. There, laying in a pool of blood, are all of my friends. RWBY, JNPR, Shade, Liz, Emerald, and- mom? I feel tears start to form and drop. "This is what will happen if you stay with them. You are a monster!"

I fall on my knees, head in my hands as I sob. _I am a monster._

"Hunter!" I turn around and see determined red eyes staring into my brown eyes.

"Emerald?" I look at the area Emerald's corpse laid, but it's gone. I turn back and look at her with confusion. "What-"

"Listen to me. You are not a monster!" She yells at me from about ten feet away.

I turn away and drop my head. "Yes I am. Nothing will prevent this."

It stays silent for a moment before I feel a soft hand land on my shoulder. I look to my left and see Emerald again. "That's because it doesn't need to be prevented."

"What?"

"You would not kill your friends, no matter what."

"But my sembla-"

"It doesn't matter what your semblance does!" My eyes widen. "You are you. It doesn't matter what your semblance does to you. You know who you are?" I shake my head. "You are one of the nicest, most caring, kindest, people out there. It may seem like you lose control, but you wouldn't hurt any one of us."

"But how do you know that?!" I yell out in doubt.

"Because you are you." I look at her once more and she smiles sympathetically.

"Don't listen to that witch! You are a monster, accept it!" I hear from my false self.

"No, I am not." I stand up, confidence clear. "I am not a monster, you are. And I will destroy you!" Retnuh growls and summons dual swords, similar to Hunter's, except the engravings are different and instead of glowing blue, it glows red. I summon mine and we dart at each other, both knowing that only one of us will make out of here alive.

 **No POV**

They both attack with equal strength and speed, almost making it a stand-off. They finally lock their swords and stare at each other, Hunter's eyes a deep blue and Retnuh's a blood red. "You can't defeat me. You care too much." He pushes him back. "I am the perfect you, the emotionless you. I have no love, only hate and anger. You cannot beat me."

Anger surges through Hunter, but he stops it. _I am not a monster._ He instead closes his eyes and breathes deeply, dropping his hands to his hips, leaving him defenseless. _Focus._

"Ha, you've finally given in huh? You've finally accepted yourself for the monster you are?" No response is given as Hunter stands there. "Hey, don't you ignore me!" He glares at Hunter, but becomes confused when he sees blue fire surround Hunter. It becomes so powerful, the whole area becomes lit. Behind Hunter appears all of his friends over the years. Retnuh looks behind him and sees the corpses and blood gone.

Hunter finally opens his eyes. "This is why I will always beat you. You are anger." They all draw their weapons, Hunter still glaring at him. "Love will always beat you." Hunter points at him as the blue fire shoots from his body, going straight at his opposite. He tries to run, but it's pointless as he begins to be consumed by the fire. All of Hunter's allies begin to attack, slicing and shooting at the monster.

After a few moments, his allies return to his side and his fire goes back inside. He walks toward what's left of his life-long enemy. Burns, bullet holes and cuts cover his whole body.. He's on his knees and looks up at Hunter. "You've finally done it. You've finally beat me." He spreads his arms out. "Do it. Rid me of your life." Hunter loosely holds the sword in his left hand and, almost gently, stabs into Retnuh. He pulls his sword out and watches as Retnuh's body turns into ash and floats away.

He turns around to all of his friends and they smile proudly. They soon disappear as well, leaving Hunter there alone. "Alright, I guess it's time to find out what Shade saw." He looks around and sees a small lamp. "And I'll start there." He runs toward it with a large smile on his face and for the first time, he doesn't hate himself.


	21. Chapter 21

**Ch. 21**

 _ **A/N: Beware this Chapter will leave you confused and questioning your, and our, sanity. So don't be surprised if you just sit at a paragraph, confused, and lost. We made it this way because team RWBY is also very confused and we wanted you to feel that.**_

The others watch as the blue fire from Hunter's body shoots into Shade. Hunter falls to the ground with a hard thud. Emerald runs over in worry. "Hunter!" She kneels down and shakes him a few times. "Hunter, are you ok?"

"He won't respond." They all turn from Hunter to the now conscious Liz. "He's not gonna wake up for a while… if at all."

"What do you mean?" Yang speaks up from her place on the bed.

"God damn hard-headed motherfu-"

"Liz, what do you mean?!"

She sighs before speaking. "He has done something he shouldn't have. Focusing his chi that much it could…"

"Could what?" Emerald stares at her, still kneeling by Hunter's side.

"It-It could kill him and Shade." They all become a little more worried. "And that's not the worst case scenario."

They stare at her once more. "What's the worst case?" Blake voices what they're all wondering.

"... It could cause an explosion and kill everyone." They gasp and look at both of the men. "You guys need to leave. I'll stay and take care of them."

Everyone drops their heads. "...No." Liz glares at Emerald.

"You could die! You need to leave before-"

"I don't care!" She yells out, glaring right back at Liz. "I don't care if I die. Hunter gave me a chance to do what's right, to save people. I'm not going to leave him now." It stays silent for a moment… before the rest of the girls voice their agreement.

Liz sighs. "I can see why you're Hunter's friends." She looks up at them. "You're just as stubborn as he is." They smile and continue their work.

 **Liz Pov**

"Fucking Idiot! Who the fuck does he think he is? He's not some all powerful being. Last time he attempted chi control, the whole forest burned down." I mumbled in anger as I sat in the corner.

"Are you okay?" I looked up and saw Emerald staring at me with worry.

"I'm fine!" Emerald looks at me with surprise and a sliver of hurt in her eyes. "Sorry I didn't mean to yell at you." _Why am I freaking out so much? Since I have the most control of my powers I can just go in there and take Hunter out; but I know it's not that simple, because he's a stubborn shit._

"Got any ideas?" I see Yang looking at me with sad cat eyes that'd make Blake proud.

"I don't know." _REALLY?! That's all you can say? Jesus Liz, pull your head out of your ass! Think, THINK STUPID, what can you do? I can either go in and try to talk him out, or drag him by his balls out, both would probably not end well._

 _Fuck it, I'll just whisper gently into his ear_. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing Emerald, don't worry about it. I'm just gonna get him back." Cupping my hands around his ear, I slowly whisper. "Get. The Fuck. Out." at first I heard no response. _Maybe I should say it louder._ "HUNTER?"

"Yes?" _Oh, a response. Now let's make sure he knows._

"GET. THE FUCK. OUT. NOOOW!" _Maybe I over did it._

"Look, the fire's receding."

 _Oh well look at that. It worked._

 **Hunter's POV**

 _Oooh, this looks like the right way to go._ I walk along a path, barely lit by a lantern every few feet. During one of the stretches of darkness, I hear a very quiet sound. A growl. I barely dodge a spear that would've pierced my skull. I summon my 6-foot katana and we run at each other, prepared to deliver a lethal blow… but we're interrupted.

"HUNTER?"

 _Is that Liz? I should probably answer._ "Yes?"

I wonder if it's another one of the subconscious blocks.

"GET. THE FUCK. OUT. NOOOW!" Nope, that's Liz.

"Okay then," I look at my arm like I have a watch. "seems like it's half past Liz is pissed. I'm just gonna go. I"ll see you another time."

"Did you say Liz?"

"Oh shit, you can talk?"

"No matter that, if Liz is pissed, you need to get the fuck out of here."

 _Whatever …. Ugh, oh god, I might have to come back fast, probably gonna throw up._

"Ugh…. What do you want Li-? SMACK "Ow fuck" _One wall, two wall, Ow, three wall, ah now I'm flying, oooh, there's Ozpin, the tower, the courtyard, and now I'm over the forest. Am I ever going to fucking lan-_ "Ow Jesus. Fuck that mountain!" I stand up slowly and look at where I am. Inside a mountain. _Well I've landed, now the next issue is, where the fuck am I?_ I walk out. _Well I am on a mountain, that now has a giant hole in it._ I sigh "This is gonna be a long walk."

 **No POV**

"Why did you do that!?" Emerald screamed at Liz. "He could be dead, you fucking bitch."

"You done?"

"No I'm NOT! What you did is wrong! If I weren't in my right mind, I'd have the thought to beat the shit out of you." Everybody stares in horror after Emerald says that. Sure, none of them have experienced her rage before, but from what Shade and Hunter say, you don't want to.

"..." Liz says nothing, staring at Emerald. They're not sure whether they should be relieved or even more scared.

"Emerald you might want to calm down before you-" Blake tries to say but is interrupted… by Liz.

"No, it's fine. I understand." The others stare at her in shock. Out of what they thought she would do, that was at the very bottom of the list. "I used to be just like you when someone hurt the one I love." Emerald blushes profusely. "But that changed after a while."

"What do you mean?" Yang asks, still on the bed.

"Well, after millions of years with him, he-"

"Wait, millions?" Blake questions "I thought you've been together for billions?"

"Weeeeeeell, let's just say I left for-" She stops for a second. "Eh fuck it, I was kidnapped, but that's when we were young and in our first life." They stare at her in shock. Meanwhile, Emerald is more confused than she has ever been in her life. Liz looks at her and realizes. "Oh yeah, you don't really know me and Shade. We've been alive for 4 billion years. Although, what really happens is we die and then become reborn." Now everyone looks at her confused. She facepalms. "Oh for fuck's sake. So, how do I explain this?" They hear Shade begin to groan and wake up. "Ok, it's better if I show you."

She grabs one of Shade's swords and proceeds to cleanly cut him in half. Then they hear a new voice. "What the fuck are you doing Liz?"

"Shut up Lillian, I'm proving a point."

"Who the fuck is Lillian?" Yang practically whines.

"Ugh, she's one of my swords, and why the FUCK did you cut me in half?"

They all look see Shade covered in shadows, as he's put back in one piece.

"Hey, we're back...Okay that's just freakin weird." Ruby exclaims as she and Weiss walk in the door.

"Where have you two been? You've missed a lot!" Yang exclaims.

"Well, after talking with Ozpin, he said to go on a date, so we did. Now my question is, what is happening?"

"Well Liz just cut Shade in half with Lillian… apparently?" Blake just stands there, not understanding what she's explaining.

"Who is Lillian?!" Weiss finally speaks up.

Shade sighs. "Lillian, go ahead and show yourself." He grabs his coat and throws it on the sword.

"Yes master." They watched as the coat began to grow, and suddenly there was this girl standing there practically nude except for some cloth wrapping and Shade's coat.

"Whoa, she's hot as fuck!" Yang exclaims, followed by a smack from Blake.

"Well thanks. Hello everyone I'm Lillian, Shade's number one sword. His other sword is Siri but he uses me more."

"So you're a sword?" Ruby asks.

"Pretty much"

"That's so cool!" Ruby's love of weapons overcomes her confusion.

"Okay, I'm confused." Weiss goes to sit down.

"OH MY GAWD, why is Lillian here?" Everyone turns to see Hunter climbing through the hole in the wall.

Lillian stares at Hunter with a malicious look in her eyes. "Now calm down." Shade grabs her shoulder.

"I thought I told you I never wanna see that bastard ever again." Everyone looks at Hunter.

"Ok, look, I already told you, I'm sorry. It was only one time."

Lillian glares at him. "ONE FUCKING TIME?! You tried it several times!"

"Okay come on Lillian let's go for a walk. Liz, can you explain everything while we are gone?"

"Wha.."

"Ok thanks." Shade says as he picks up Lillian and flies out the hole.

"Okay then, where to begin…"

 **Several Hours and explanations later.**

"Okay, we good?"

"Uh..." Everyone stutters in unison as they stare at Liz.

"Ok, I have a question." Everyone looks at Yang. "What exactly did Hunter do to Lillian?"

Before Liz can answer. "No!" Everyone looks at Hunter as he sits there.

Liz turns back to the girls and laughs. "Puberty."

The others stare at Hunter. "... Shut up."

"Anyways where did the other two go?" Blake wondered

"Don't ask me." Liz says staring out the window.

 _Tap tap tap_ "Come in"

The door opens and there is Professor Ozpin sipping his coffee as usual.

"Hey guys, just had a few things to say then I'll be out of your hair okay? Okay. First Liz, I need you, Shade, Lillian, and Hunter to come to my office as soon as possible."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you know Lillian, and that she was here?" Yang says dumbfounded

"Yes ma'am, saw them heading to town… and I met her a long time ago."

"Wait, how did you meet her?"

"Well, one day I went to visit Hunter and his mother and Shade was there... and Liz... and Lillian. That was an interesting day." He says, looking reminiscent.

Hunter laughs. "Yes it was."

"And finally, Hunter?"

"Yes?"

"Fix those holes."

"What? It wasn't my fault. Liz slapped me."

"Then it was obviously your fault. Toodaloo." As he sips his coffee and closes the door with his cane.

Team RWBY stands there, completely lost. Liz laughs. "You look confused." They all nod. "Don't worry, so are the readers."

"Who?!" Yang sits there, confused even more.

"Don't ask."

"Well, I guess I should fix the walls." Hunter goes outside and is gone for about five minutes, before he returns with mortar and bricks. He begins to repair the holes, using his heightened speed rune so he gets done quicker. Within a few minutes, the walls are completely rebuilt. The only thing needed now is a new coat of paint.


	22. Chapter 22

**Ch. 22**

The whole _gang_ sits in the RWBY dorm, Lillian sitting on Shade's lap, beaming a gentle smile to everyone... except Hunter. "So, what do you all know about what happened to me?" Shade looks at all of them with a seriousness not usually present on his face.

"Well, you and Hunter were meditating in the forest." Blake starts.

"And then a bunch of shadows started to surround you." Hunter reminds.

"The next thing we know is you were unconscious out in the hallway and Liz was knocked out with a hit to the head." Yang finishes their explanation.

"Okay good, that gives me a starting point." He nods. "You all know how I'm contracted with a demon and he pretty much lives inside of me, right?"

"Yea, kinda" everyone agreed except for Emerald, who looked around to see if anyone else was as confused as her.

"Ok, can someone please explain?" Emerald exasperates.

Shade sighs. "Hunter, can you please explain everything to Emerald?"

"Um-" Hunter hesitates.

"Yeah why don't you?" Yang stands up and starts pushing them outside. "You guys can just talk right out here." She pushes them out and looks at them mischievously. "Have fun." She winks before slamming the door.

 **Outside the dorm**

Emerald and Hunter stand there in shock for a few seconds, both of them wondering exactly what Yang was talking about. Well, they knew, just didn't want to think about it. "Well," Hunter finally turns to Emerald, hand on his neck. "that was interesting."

"Heh, yeah." She chuckles. "So, are you gonna tell me everything?"

"I guess so. You might wanna sit down, this is a doozy."

Hunter spends the next 45 minutes telling Emerald everything she needs to know, everything about him and his semblance, Shade and Liz, and even some other things. "Wait, so Blake actually planned to kiss Yang under a mistletoe on Christmas Day?"

"Yes she did. Wasn't my idea, but that's what she did."

Emerald begins laughing, hard. "That's so cliche."

Hunter chuckles and smirks as he always has. "Yeah, well, she's a romantic like me."

This peaks Emerald's curiosity. "A romantic like you huh?"

Hunter immediately blushes. "Well, I mean, uh-" His embarrassment is cut short by Emerald laughing. After a second, he joins in, laughing just as hard. They sit there, on opposite sides of the hallway, laughing.

Once Emerald finally catches her breath. "So, how did Ruby and Weiss happen?" She asks still smiling.

"See, now this one I can take more credit for." He smirks as Emerald chuckles. "Weiss came to me and asked for my help in expressing her feelings to Ruby… so I told her to be a secret admirer of hers until she was ready to tell her."

Emerald already begins to snicker. "You really are a romantic."

"Yeah, but there's more." They both have a small laugh at that. "I also told her to tell Ruby on Christmas Day." It stays silent for a second… before they burst out laughing.

"Oh my God!" Emerald can barely get it out.

"Hey, you know what? Weiss did it. She was a secret admirer for a couple months and then told her on Christmas Day."

"Wow, that's pretty funny." Emerald chuckles.

"Yeah." He then stands up. "Well, I think I told you everything you need to know." He says while stretching.

Emerald stands up as well… but freezes when she sees it. "Hunter, what's that?"

Hunter stops and looks at her confused. "What's what?"

"Under your shirt. It looked like… scars." She hesitates.

Hunter sighs. "Yes, I have scars… a lot of scars."

Emerald steps toward him. "Where did you get them?"

"Several places. Training with Shade, fighting with Shade, things trying to kill Shade."

"So, they're from Shade?"

"Most of them."

Emerald stands there and visibly hesitates. "Can… Can I see?" Hunter sighs after a moment and proceeds to take his shirt off. "Oh my…" She sees all the scars across his body, way more than what he should have at his age.

"Yeah, there's a reason Liz calls me hard-headed all the time."

"Where are the runes?" Hunter had told her Shade gave him runes but didn't tell her he hides them.

"I make them the same color as my skin so nobody can see them." He then takes a deep breath and Emerald sees the runes appear. She sees two on his chest and one on his right arm.

"How many do you have?"

"4." He simply responds. He turns around and shows the one on his back.

"Wow." She lightly traces the runes. She expected to feel nothing but instead felt an indent as she traced it. "What do they mean?"

"The one on the right side of my chest is my speed rune. Left side is stamina. The one on my arm is my perception rune… and the one on my back is my painless rune."

"Painless?"

"Yes, it only activates when my semblance does."

Emerald stays silent as she looks over his back. She finally notices a specific scar that is different from the rest. All the others are stabs, slices, arrows, but this one seems almost… magical. "How'd you get this one?" She lightly puts her fingers over it.

Hunter immediately knows which one she's talking about… and he almost shivers. "I-I'd rather not talk about it." Emerald nods and continues looking at all the scars. She finally goes to his front and sees even more scars, but these ones are much less noticeable and smaller. She finally sees a small tear in the corner of his right eye.

She reacts immediately and hugs him. "What have you gone through?"

He hugs back. "More than I should've." They stand there, hugging in the hallway, for a few seconds… before they both hear a door opening.

"Are you fini- Oh, nice job Hunter." They both look and see all of the others standing there, ear to ear grins on their faces. The two blush and separate quickly. Hunter looks in and finally notices Shade is the only one not smiling. _In fact, he's giving me a look. The look of "we need to talk."_

"Alright everyone." Hunter grabs his shirt and enters the dorm, pushing the others out. "Me and Shade need to talk." He says before closing the door, and locks it. The others just stand there in shock, all wondering the same thing. _What is going on?_

 **In the dorm**

"Ok, what's up?" Hunter wonders as he puts his shirt on.

"It's bad." Shade says seriously.

"So, we've handled plen-"

"Not a fucking wave of death!" Shade yells at him.

"What do you mean?" Hunter is now getting worried. Shade almost never acts like this. _Not unless… no._

"Look I'm not so worried about Liz, you and me-"

"And me."

"Quiet Lillian." Lillian quiets down as she stays on Shade's lap. "It's the rest I'm worried about." He says with slight concern. He's seen too many of his friends die to really allow the possibility bother him anymore.

"Spit it out Shade." Hunter is starting to get annoyed. From what Shade is saying, his friends could be in danger and as he's said, his friends getting hurt is one of the few things that makes him angry.

"Look, an old acquaintance of mine is coming. He'll be here in three months with an army that rivals my-"

"Who is it!?" _I'm getting sick of these riddles._ "Give me a straight answer this time."

"The Demon King's son, he-"

"But you're the Demon Kin-"

"Shut the fuck up and listen!" Hunter stops and stays silent. "Finally." Shade sighs before continuing. "He's the son of the previous Demon King, who I killed. That and the fact that I took his throne from him, he really doesn't like me. He's coming for me. He and many others down there don't accept me and want me gone." He stops for a second. "I have a few whodo accept me but they have few followers, and some MIGHT come and help us. Like I said, we have three months until he comes, and we can't rely on them to be here."

Hunter stops and lets it sink in. _Goddamn it Shade._ "What did you tell the others?"

"I've told them the gist of it, but all they know is a very strong, bad person is coming. I want YOU to go and tell everyone they have 2 weeks to spend as much time with each other as possible. I don't care how, but they need to do it. Then for the 2 and half months after that, we're training them with as much as we can in that time."

"Ok, but what will I be doing? I'm sure that you can teach me some more about demons, but I'm not sure we need to spend 2 and a half months training." Hunter says doubtfully.

"Look I'm not saying that they're weak... but they are, at least against demons, and if we don't teach them something, they're all gonna die. I'll train you for a month because that's all you're gonna need. Then you're gonna help me, Liz and Ozpin train everyone."

"Wait, wait, wait, Oz...pin?"

"Yes. He's the only other person who has actually fought an army of demons with me."

Hunter stares at him wide-eyed. "An army?"

"It happened while your dad was still in school. Just don't worry about it, I'll tell you another time."

Hunter nods… and then stops and thinks for a second. He turns back to Shade and almost glares at him. "Did you know my father?" Shade hesitates and Hunter immediately knows the answer. "Did we really meet by accident?" His glare intensifies, trying to force the truth out of the shadow controller

Shade sighs. "This isn't the ti-"

"THIS IS THE ONLY GODDAMN TIME!" Shade winces. It's not often Hunter gets angry at him and he almost never yells at hin either. "Tell me, did you mean to meet me or not?"

Shade drops his head. "Yes, I met you on purpose."

"Why?!"

"I _was_ on a contract in the forest when I saw your father… on the ground bleeding. I ran to him and it was too late. He was dead when I got to him." Hunter steps back, stunned. "I looked in his hand and found a note. It said "Whoever finds this, please protect my family. My wife, Sara… and my son, Hunter. Please."" Tears begin to fall from Hunter's eyes. "Hunter, I'm so-"

"Shut up." Hunter clenches his fists and stands there with his head down.

"Look-"

"SHUT UP!" He stands there, knuckles white. "We will train and we will fight for your goddamn mistakes and your life!" He finally lifts his head and points at Shade. "But after that, we're done." Hunter waves his hand to the side dismissively, only making the point that much clearer.

Shade stares at him shocked. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm done fighting because of you. All of these scars are because of you, because of your life. All these demons and angels and shadows, I'm done with it all." Hunter goes to the door but turns back around. "After this, leave me alone." Before Shade can respond, Hunter leaves, almost breaking the door when he kicks it open. Shade watches in silence as he leaves.

"Don't worry about him master, he'll be fine. He'll come back." Lillian says from Shade's lap.

"I'm not so sure Lillian. I think I pushed him too far this time. I shouldn't have lied." Shade stays there, pondering on whether or not Hunter will forgive him… and whether or not he will forgive himself.

 **Outside the dorm**

"What are they talking about?" Ruby whines, being her care-free self.

"I'm not sure. He's telling him about the…" Liz hesitates. "bad person that's coming, but besides that, I don't know." _BANG!_ The others watch in shock as the door flies open and Hunter comes storming out, knuckles white.

"Hunter-" Emerald tries to stop him

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Hunter stalks off without even turning around. He doesn't even know who said it… and he doesn't care. He doesn't care about anything right now except trying not to kill someone.

Liz grabs Emerald's shoulder before she breaks down. "He didn't mean it. He's just angry. He'll be fine." In truth, she's not sure if he'll be fine. She's never seen him so angry without his friends getting hurt first. Emerald looks at her and nods, watching as Hunter storms off.

Liz looked in the room only to be met by a sad sideways glance from Shade, proving that more was said than she actually thought. "I'm gonna talk with Shade… Are you gonna be alright?" She asks and Emerald nods after a second.

Liz goes inside and locks the door, which barely even shuts anymore. "What happened?"

"He found out." He says simply. Liz notes that Lillian is back in her sword form, meaning Shade had to think.

"Found what?"

He looks at her with a pointed look. "His father."

Liz makes no reaction. "I told you he would."

"I know you did. And I should've told him sooner. Now he's pissed off and…" He trails off, no longer looking at his wife.

Liz sits down with him. "What'd he say?"

"That he's done. He's done with me, you, the demons, shadows, everything." Liz puts her hand on his shoulder. "He said after this fight, he's done fighting for me."

"But he made that choice." Liz gets a little annoyed.

"Yes, that's true… but if I never came into his life, he could've lived like a normal person. He could've been a hunter or a farmer or even just live a normal life in the city." He sighs. "Because of me, that can never happen. The demons know exactly who he is and they'd use him to get to me."

Liz hugs him. "To tell you the truth, I think this was meant to happen."

Shade looks at her with confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Do you really think he'd be happy living a normal life? Do you really think he would even if he had the chance?" They stare into each other's eyes. "You know how he is. Even without us, he probably would've found something about the demons or get involved with something else just as dangerous."

Shade chuckles. "You're probably right. I can see it now, I'm with the demons and a portal opens and he just comes out of it, with his normal challenging self. Hell, he'd probably try and challenge me, I'd beat him, and he'd want me to train him."

"Exactly. Even though we may speak about him like he's an idiot, we both know he's almost as smart as us… and we're 4 billion years old." They both chuckle at that. "So stop blaming yourself and give him some time. I'm sure after a little while, he'll forgive you."

"Ya think so?"

"Of course. Even after everything, you're like a father to him. You've helped him through some of his hardest years and he can't forget that." Shade smiles and finally looks like his normal self.

He kisses her gently. "Thank you."

"That's what I'm here for." They kiss once more, enjoying this quiet time.

The others are still in complete shock from what happened. None of them had seen him so angry before. Emerald has pullen herself together, but still looks sad. She knows he didn't mean to yell at her like that, but it still hurt. After only a short time, they felt close. "Hey guys?"

"Yeah?" Blake answers.

"Hunter and I only spent an hour together, but I feel really close to him. Is-Is that normal?"

"Normally, I'd say no." Blake then smiles. "But Hunter has that effect on people. You'll feel like best friends but it's only been 30 minutes. He's just like that."

Emerald nods and goes into deep thought. _So many scars. Sure, I have scars too, but nothing like that._ Emerald continues to think in silence as the others wonder what happened.

Ruby and Weiss are seated on the hallway floor, holding hands. "What do you think happened?" Ruby asks her girlfriend.

"I'm not sure. It was obviously something with Shade but I don't even wanna get into that."

"Why not?"

Weiss looks at her with an "it's obvious" look on her face. "Their relationship is… complicated to say the least. I think there's a lot more to it than we know." Ruby simply nods and begins to lay down on Weiss's shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Laying with my girlfriend. What's it look like?" Weiss blushes at the word girlfriend. She's still not used to it. Weiss almost says something mean… but she stops herself. _No, we're girlfriends now. I should enjoy this._

Weiss grips Ruby's hand a little tighter and rests her head on Ruby's. They simply lay there together, content with just being around each other.

Blake and Yang stand in the hallway, a little worried. "Do you think he'll be alright?" Yang asks her little kitten.

"I'm not sure. He seemed pretty pissed." Blake says with glazed over eyes.

Yang nods and turns around… only to see her little sister lying with the Ice Queen. She almost interrupts the tender moment between the two, but decides not to. _I'll let it slide… this time._

They all turn when they hear the JNPR door open. They all walk out, confusion on their faces. "What was that?" They turn to the voice that asked the question… and realize that Mercury was with them

. He had been talking with them for the past couple hours, getting to know them and also asking for forgiveness, which was accepted by team JNPR.

He finally sees Emerald in the corner, by herself, being completely silent. He walks over, a little worried. "Emerald?" She doesn't respond and stares straight ahead. He sits down next to her and simply waits. Soon enough, she leans on his shoulder and stays there for a bit, obviously tired.

"Thank you." She says. Mercury nods. They had been like brother and sister for years. If either of them had a problem, they could always rely on each other to be there. To be a shoulder to cry on.

"Um, what did happen out here?" Pyrrha asks, her arm linked with Jaune's.

"We're not exactly sure. All we know is that Shade did or said something that pissed Hunter off and now we have no idea where he is." Blake explains as best she can.

Finally, the RWBY dorm opens and Shade and Liz come out. "Good, you're all here." Everybody looks at Shade with the same questioning look. "Listen, I admit that I pissed Hunter off… but right now, we need to focus on the real problem."

"What is the real problem exactly?" Emerald speaks up for the first time in 30 minutes.

"There is someone from my past that is coming to kill me… and he isn't coming alone."

"What do you mean? Jaune asks, this being the first time he's ever heard of the guy coming for them.

"He's the son of the Demon King and he's bringing a demon army." They gasp at that. "I came out here to tell you… spend as much time together as you can. Spend it with your loved ones and those you care about, because in two weeks, Liz, Ozpin, and I are going to train you the hardest you've ever been trained." Each of them look at the ones they care about. "During that time, you won't be able to spend much, if any, time together. So make these next two weeks count." He looks over at Emerald and sees that her eyes are a little puffy. "Alright, go on everyone." Everyone leaves to their respective dorms or other places. Emerald attempts to leave but Shade stops her. "Not you."

"What?" Mercury looks at Shade. "Just leave her alone man."

"Look, I'm sorry Emerald. It's my fault that he got that mad." He stops for a second and almost hesitates... but continues. "But what I said still holds true. Everyone needs to spend the next couple weeks with those they care about, including you."

Emerald looks at him shocked. "What do you mean?"

He adorns a small, almost sad smirk. "You know what I mean." Emerald blushes but also nods. "Good." He leaves them alone, Mercury still a little confused but is piecing it together.

"So, you need help finding this guy or what?"

Emerald looks at him and shakes her head. "No, I should probably do this alone."

"Alright, good luck." He turns around. "Just remember, I'm always here for you if you need a shoulder." He proceeds to leave as Emerald stands there.

She then turns around and looks down the hall that Hunter went. "Here we go."


	23. Chapter 23

**Ch. 23**

"Where the hell are you?" Emerald walks down another hall of the dorm, still trying to find Hunter. She hasn't been looking for too long, only about 10 minutes, but she thought she would've found him by now. She comes to another intersection, one going left into another endless labyrinth of dorm hallways and the one on the right going outside. She almost goes left but stops. _Wait, doesn't he love to spar?_ She thinks back to what he told her.

" _Literally, I sparred with anybody who wanted to 10 minutes after I got my cast off."_

" _Really? Why?"_

" _Eh, it's how I let off some steam and channel anything I may be feeling in the moment."_

She looks to the door on the right and decides to leave the dorm. _Now, where would he be sparring?_ She thinks back and remembers that Hunter loves the forest and nature. She learned this while she was following him when he tried to find Shade. She looks to the forest and almost shrugs her shoulders. "A good a place as any." She runs into the forest, intent on finding him.

 _Boom!_ is heard as yet another tree goes down. Hunter stands in the middle of a clearing, panting with a dangerous look in his eyes. He suddenly yells as he punches another tree and it breaks in half. He doesn't notice that there are over 30 trees all around him. He doesn't notice that there is some blue fire coming off of him, burning the grass around him. He doesn't notice that his fists are bleeding heavily from not using his gauntlets.

The only thing that's going through his mind is all the times he got hurt because of Shade. The memory of his magical scar pops in and he punches another tree, but this time it sends a shockwave through the forest and 5 other trees also break and fall.

He finally becomes so exhausted, emotionally and physically, he drops to his knees. He finally stops holding back and tears begin to fall. The fire becomes hotter around him, the area of burnt grass becoming bigger and bigger.

Emerald runs through the forest, listening intently. "Where are you?" She then hears the sound of trees falling… several trees falling. _There you are._ She follows the sound and finally comes to multiple broken trees.

She slows down and carefully makes her way through the destruction. She walks through it for several moments before she finally comes to a clearing. In the middle, she sees it. Hunter, on his knees, blue fire surrounding him. She stares in shock… and then sees all the blood. Blood is dripping from his fists and she can tell he's been bleeding for a while from all the stained trees.

 _Why?_ Hunter wonders. _Why have I helped him so much? Why do I fight for him… why do I still fight for him? I should hate him, but I don't. I want to, but I can't. WHY CAN'T I STOP MYSELF?!_ He punches the ground and dirt flies up, a small indent present in the ground.

Emerald finally decides she's seen enough and comes forward. Hunter doesn't notice her at all. She comes over and notices the heat coming off of him. She leans close and it's almost like a fire. "WHY?!" She hears from him suddenly and the fire grows hotter and bigger. She notices that his eyes are also glowing blue and his blood is beginning to get a blue tint to it.

"Hunter." She doesn't get a reaction. "Hunter!" She tries again, but the result is the same. She grabs him and recoils when she's burnt. She sees the smoke coming off of her hands.

"GODDAMN IT!" He yells and punches the ground again, this time she hears a sickening crunch come from his arm, but he makes no reaction.

 _That's enough._ Emerald prepares herself… and grabs Hunter by his face. She forces him to look at her and stares into his eyes. "Hunter, please, just STOP!"

Hunter doesn't even know what he's doing. His emotions and semblance has fully taken control. He suddenly feels his head rise and he stares into deep red eyes. It's then, that her words finally pierce through his emotional stupor. "Hunter, please, just STOP!" He notices the tears that fall from her face. _Why is she crying? Wait, what happened? How did I get here?_ Hunter slowly regains control.

Emerald stares into his eyes and feels tears fall down her face. She keeps her hands on his face, no matter how much it hurts, and stays there for a few moments, before the fire finally begins to die down. Soon enough, her hands no longer burn and the blue fire completely burns out.

He closes his eyes and shakes his head before looking at her again, with brown eyes this time. "Emerald? Wha…" He doesn't finish his sentence as he drops to the ground, unconscious.

"Hunter!" She grabs him by his shoulders. "Hunter." She shakes him but he doesn't say anything. She becomes so worried, she shouts the first name that pops into her head who can help him. "LIZ!"

Almost immediately, Liz appears in a flash of white lightning, her back to Emerald. "What do you wa-" She turns around and sees Hunter in Emerald's arms. She runs over. "Goddamn it Hunter! What did you do this time?!" She puts both of her hands on each side of Hunter's head. She activates her powers to sense if he's alive and what damage may have been done. "He's alive. No brain damage. Arm broken." Liz says in broken sentences. She stops and grabs Hunter's right arm. She then shoots some of her healing lightning into his arm, trying to fix the damage he had done.

Emerald watches as small bolts of white lightning dance across Hunter's body. It starts at his right arm but slowly spreads, going all over. When it gets to his fists, it closes the wounds and heals the scars. By the time it's done, it's almost as if nothing had happened.

Something neither of them had noticed was a small puddle under him. His body had completely hidden it. As the bolts of lightning begin to travel around to his back, his body spasms.

Liz immediately stops sending bolts, but some of them stay and go around his body with amazing speed. "What's happening?!" Emerald worriedly asks.

Liz reaches under him and feels the water. "Shit!" After that, the bolts of lightning begin to circle him. In a few moments, the white lightning begins to turn blue. A few moments after that, it becomes almost like a liquid. It continues to surround him, until his body slowly rises off of the ground. She grabs Emerald's arm and pulls her a couple feet away from Hunter. "BACK UP!"

"What?! No, we need to-"

"Listen. I know about stuff like this and only a couple of different things could happen." Liz stares as Hunter's body gets a couple feet off the ground.

"What are you talking about?"

"No matter what happens, this will get explosive." She drags Emerald a few more feet away. "Trust me, there's nothing we can do right now."

Emerald's eyes widen as she stares. What used to be small droplets of water has almost become a shield around him. He continues to rise as they watch through the transparency of the water. They watch as droplets of water from the grass, trees and dirt begin to float through the air and join the wall of water.

The water gets thicker and thicker until they can barely see him. He hovers 5 feet in the air for a few moments… before the cascade of water closes in on him. They watch as the water almost enters him and completely soaks him. He drops to the ground with a hard thud, the area completely dried up.

They run over and Liz begins another scan. She can't feel anything, no brain activity, no pulse. _Come on. Come on! You can't die now, you stubborn little shit!_ After 20 seconds of silent waiting, Liz sighs and drops her hands. "What? What is it? Is he ok?"

"N-N… No. He's dead." Tears fall from Liz's eyes and she feels a sadness she hasn't felt for millions of years. He was like a son to her. Someone she promised to take care of. Someone she truly cared about… and now he's gone.

"What? No! No, No, NO! He can't be." She grabs him by his shoulders and begins to shake him vigorously. "Hunter, please wake up. HUNTER!"

Liz begins to telepathically communicate with Shade. " _Shade, are you there?"_

" _Yes."_ There's hesitation. " _What's wrong?"_

" _Just, grab RWBY and the others and bring them to my location. Now."_

" _Ok."_

Liz turns around and sees Emerald still trying to wake him up. "Emerald, stop. He's gone."

"No, I won't believe that. He's stronger than that!" She screams in denial.

Before Liz can say anything else, she hears the familiar sound of Shade teleporting… and she prepares herself. "Liz, what's wrong?" He comes running up. "What happ-" His words are caught in his throat as he finally sees it. He looks at her for confirmation and she nods sadly. "No. No, please no." He paces back and forth, not believing it. "No, he's alive, I know it. Scan him again."

"Honey-"

"DO IT NOW!" Liz approaches him and hugs him from behind to try and stop his pacing.

"Shade, he's gone." Shade finally breaks down as tears fall from his eyes. He falls down and sits, holding Liz's hands around him.

"No." He whispers.

All of teams RWBY, JNPR, and Mercury stare at Hunter's corpse. They immediately break down into tears, holding onto their loved ones for comfort. "NO!" They hear from Ruby as Weiss holds her.

"Ruby, stop." Weiss holds her until Ruby finally stops struggling and sobs heavily. Blake and Yang hug each other, tears flowing down their face and soaking each other's clothes.

The only things heard in the forest were the sounds of agony and sadness echoing through the land. Mercury walks over to Emerald and hugs her as they both kneel over Hunter's body.

The others slowly get up and walk over to Hunter's body as well. They all kneel in a circle around him and cry, each of them holding each other for comfort. Their many tears land on either Hunter or the ground near him.

It begins to rain from Liz's control over the weather. She didn't mean for it to happen, but she didn't really care either. She was too emotionally broken to care about anything else.

DThey sob for minutes… until Blake notices something. "Wait, what-what's that?" She points to the water around them. Their tears and the rain begin to move on its own… right toward Hunter.

They watch as Hunter's body absorbs the water. "What's happening?" Pyrrha asks through her tears. Nobody answers as they see the amount of water being absorbed continually increase.

After a minute, his body stops absorbing the water and the rain actually stays in mid-air for a few seconds. The rain suddenly continues to pour and they watch Hunter closely.

"…"

"…"

"…"

It's silent for what felt like an eternity… until they hear a cough. "Ugh." Hunter groans. He slowly opens his eyes and has to wait for everything to come into focus. When his eyes finally focus, he sees everyone who's important to him, kneeling above him. Shock is clear on their faces and tears are still present. "Um, hey. What ha-" He is unable to finish his sentence before he's bombarded by a group hug. "Ok then, I guess it's time for a group hug, why not?" He lightly chuckles but nobody else does.

The others are still too unsure about this to laugh at one of his jokes. Some think he's a hallucination while others think he may be a spirit and that this may be their last time to talk with him.

He looks and sees that even Shade and Liz are hugging him. _And they're crying? What the hell happened?_ "Ok guys, even though I do enjoy this, what happened?" They separate and look at each other before answering.

"Um, well…" Liz hesitates and almost stutters.

Emerald touches her shoulder and Liz understands. "I'll tell you." Emerald begins to explain how she looked for him and what happened after that. "When Liz tried to heal your arm, the bolts became water and they became a tornado that surrounded you." Hunter, and others, stare in shock as Emerald explains everything. "When you fell back down, Liz scanned you and.." She trails off.

"And what?" Hunter asks.

She sighs. "You… You were dead." His eyes widen. "Not a single sign of life."

"Wha-What? But, how? I mean, I'm alive now." The others drop their heads, not sure.

"Well, if I can hazard a guess," They all turn to Blake. "before you came back to life, you absorbed water. A lot of it. It may sound crazy, but…" Blake trails off, waiting for someone else to say it.

"Wait, you think he is healed by water?" Liz finishes for her. Blake nods slowly.

"Is that even possible?" Weiss asks.

"Yes, but it shouldn't have been with him. He doesn't have water powe-" She stops and realizes something. "Wait, my lightning. It has magical properties and transformed into water. You then absorbed that same magical water."

Hunter stares at her, brows furrowed. "So you think I have water powers now?"

"Only one way to find out." Ruby nods at the rain around them. "Try it."

"… Ok. I guess I'll try."

Liz speaks up. "Even if he does have control of water, I doubt he'd be able to-"

"Look." Emerald interrupts her. They all watch as the rain begins to slow down, before coming to a stop. Hunter stands there, hands at his hips, palms facing up. His eyes are closed as he slowly moves his hands up. They watch in shock as the rain follows his movements and moves up.

He opens his eyes and sees that the rain is following his commands. "Oh my God, I do have powers... Awesome!" He looks at them with a wide smile on his face, but it disappears as his head begins to sting. "Ow." He drops to his knees and holds his head.

The others run forward. "Are you ok?" Yang is the first to ask.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a headache." He stands up and rubs his head. He looks at them and voices what they're all wondering. "So, what now?"


	24. Chapter 24

**Ch. 24**

No one got more than a couple hours of sleep the night that Hunter "died". Either they couldn't sleep because they were still shocked from what happened or they would try… only to have nightmares that he actually did die. One such nightmare invaded Emerald's sleep.

 **Emerald's Nightmare**

" _Um, so I was wondering, if you wanted to go out sometime?"_

 _Hunter smiles brightly. "I'd be happy to. What time?" Well shit, I didn't think that far ahead. Well, it's almost 6 so an hour should be fine._

" _Um, how about 7 tonight?" I say nervously. I don't know why I'm so nervous, he's just another boy._

" _That's great." He leans forward and gives me a quick peck on my cheeks. "I'll see you then." Ok, maybe he's a little more than "just another boy." He runs off to Shade, probably to tell him that they'll have to cut their training short. I know his training is important to him… which means that I'm important to him if he's cancelling. This brings a smile to my face… which quickly disappears when I remember something. I run off to the RWBY room after realizing I don't have anything to wear._

 _I finally make it to the dorm and run in. The others stares at me in confusion. "And what's got you so worked up?" Yang asks, being her usual blunt self._

" _Well, I kinda asked Hunter out and he said yes and I don't have anything to wear, so help me!" I say so quickly, they barely understand me._

" _I've got a cute dress that should fit you." Weiss says with a smile._

" _Really?" She nods. I run over and hug her. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."_

" _Yeah, yeah, yeah, just stop hugging me and we'll be even." I separate from her and give her a small smile. "Just let me grab it real quick." She goes over to the shared closet and grabs a box behind the clothes. She opens it up and brings out a beautiful white dress. One that would be used to impress the wealthiest of Atlas. It even shows a bit more skin than I would expect from Weiss. Perfect._

 _I stare at in awe and carefully grab it, scared I might diminish its beauty. "Are you sure? I mean, this must be expensive and-"_

 _Weiss waves her hand dismissively. "It's fine. I'll probably never use it again."_

" _Really? Why not?"_

" _My father used to force me to wear it during dances and balls. It's a part of my past I want to forget." I nod, understanding what she meant. I have memories from my past I try to never think about._

" _Thank you." I smile appreciatively. I run into the bathroom, excited to try it on. I quickly put it on, wanting to know what they think of it. As I'm putting on the second shoulder strap, I hear a knock on the door. "Yes?"_

" _Hey, it's me." I hear from Weiss. "I just wanted to say that I also have some beautiful sapphire earrings that would be perfect."_

 _I'm really gonna have to find a way to thank her someday. "Ok, I'll be out in a sec." I finish putting on the dress and look in the mirror, making sure everything's in place. I nod, content with my look and open the door. As soon as I walk out, I see all of their jaws drop._

" _Oh my God, you look sexy as hell Emerald." The others nod at Yang's comment, not caring that it was a little vulgar._

" _Thank you, that's what I was going for." I take the earrings and put them in. "Well, I think I'm ready." I look at the clock._ _ **6:56 PM.**_ _With five minutes to spare. Despite that, we hear a knock on the door only a few seconds afterwards. I smile at them. "Wish me luck."_

" _You won't need it." Ruby jumps up and starts pushing me to the door. "Now go have fun."_

 _I nod and take a deep breath before opening the door. I open it and expect to see Hunter there, in a suit… but that's not what happened. Hunter? No! Not again! I drop to the ground, kneeling over his bloody corpse. Everything melts away, just leaving him and me alone in the darkness. "Hunter, please wake up!" I yell, still cradling him. I sit there sobbing. "no." I whisper before finally falling into the darkness._

Emerald wakes up, covered in sweat. She looks around and notices that she's in her bed in JNPR's dorm. Mercury is in his bed next to hers, snoring as he always does. _Everything's fine. He's alive._ She had to remind herself. The dream was so vivid and realistic, she finds a stray tear fall down her cheek. She simply stares straight ahead, still trying to get everything in order with her mind.

"Emerald, what are you doing up?" Emerald turns to the voice of Mercury whispering.

"Oh nothing, just woke up. I'll go back to sleep in a second." She lies.

Mercury almost believes her, but sees the trail of a tear on her face and knows that there's something more. "Emerald, tell me the truth. You know you can trust me."

She stares at him… before more tears begin to fall. He gets up and hugs her as quietly as he can. "I-I had a nightmare."

He strokes her hair gently. "It was about Hunter." She simply nods. 'It's ok. It wasn't real." They then look into each other's eyes. "You're not alone in this. You know how many times I've heard or seen someone having a nightmare tonight?"

"How many?"

"At least a dozen." They have a small laugh at that. "I must wonder, how has he had such a profound effect on all of them?" She looks at him confused. "He's only been here for a couple months and yet, everyone cares for him deeply."

She smiles. "He has that effect on people."

"What do you mean?"

She smiles even wider. "Yesterday, we talked for nearly an hour. Just about what he's done here, Shade and Liz, how some of the couples here happened…"

"And?"

"And I already feel close to him. I asked Blake about it and she said he did the same thing to everyone else here."

Mercury chuckles a small bit. "Ya know, I don't doubt it."

They both smile before Emerald looks at the clock. **5:32 AM.** "Well, I don't think I'll be getting any more sleep."

"Do you want to take a walk?" Emerald ponders for a minutes before nodding.

"Yeah sure, why not? At the least, I'll stop thinking about the nightmare."

"Exactly. Let's go." They quietly leave, not waking up any of team JNPR.

In the RWBY dorm, there are three figures, still awake and watching. There is an uncomfortable silence present in the room, notably coming from the tension between Hunter and Shade. Hunter still didn't forget nor forgive Shade for what happened between them. Shade was thinking about many things, but one thing kept coming back no matter how much he tried to push it away. How much it hurt when he thought Hunter died.

He had a very glazed over look in his eyes, indicating that he was not to be bothered. Liz was sitting on the edge of Blake's bed between the two, Hunter to her left, her husband on her right on the desk. She was getting sick of this tension and decided to do something about it. She quickly grabbed them both and teleported them all to the forest.

"What the hell Liz?" Shade gets a little irritated since he was in such deep thought.

"Look, I'm not gonna beat around the bush; you two need to make up now." Shade and Hunter look at each other, unsure about what happens next.

"Why?" Liz looks at Hunter. "Why should I forgive him? I've done so much for him. I've fought for him, held secrets for him, I've almost died for him!"

"BUT THAT WAS YOUR GODDAMN DECISION!" Liz booms at him. He flinches, but doesn't fully back down.

"Maybe so… but I regret those decisions now." He glares at Shade.

"There is nothing to be done about that now. It doesn't matter, it was in the past." Hunter looks to Liz once more. "What matters is now and what you will do now."

"Exactly, that's why I'm done!"

The silence is deafening… until Shade finally speaks up. "I'm sorry."

This catches them both off guard. "What?" Hunter asks, not sure he heard him right.

"I'm sorry." The whole time, he had his back turned to them, his head hanging, but he finally turns and looks at Hunter. "I'm sorry for everything that has happened to you. I am sorry for what you've had to go through for me. You shouldn't have had to do that, especially for your age. I understand if you are done and if you want… you don't have to fight for me this time." They stare at him in shock.

"… I'm not fighting for you." Hunter responds. "I've been thinking and the only reason why I agreed to fight this one last time is because my friends are in danger… and that's because of you."

"I know and I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't enough Shade!" He yells at him.

Liz steps in. "Look Hunter, I know why you're angry. We understand… but please, stop thinking about all the bad with us. Think about the good."

This pierces Hunter and he searches further into his mind. He finds everything else, the training, the jokes, the daily conversations… all of the good times. One specific conversation comes to mind… one that took place only a few days ago.

" _To tell you the truth, I don't know what I'd do if you actually died." Hunter continues sadly._

" _Yeah well, if it's any consolation, I feel the same way about you." Hunter's eyes widen and become a little brighter. "If I had heard you died or if I watched you die, I would never stop hunting down the people who did it." Shade finally turns to Hunter. "You're like a son to me."_

"Are you really willing to give it all up?" Hunter looks at Liz again. "Everybody makes mistakes, but we're your family. You can't forget that." She wears a gentle voice that she rarely uses with them.

"Hunter," He looks at Shade. "I am truly sorry… but I've been with you for five years. We've gone through so much together, good and bad." Shade takes small steps toward Hunter. "Too much to simply forget it and separate. You know that." They finally come face to face, a little less than a foot between them. "Please." He says with genuine sincerity.

Hunter visibly hesitates… before tightly hugging Shade. "I'm sorry too." They separate. "You're like a father to me; never doubt that, no matter what I say." A few tears fall down Hunter's face as they hug once more.

"Thank God!" Liz exclaims, ruining the moment. They look at her with a _really_ look. "What? You two need to work together if we're gonna beat the demons." They nod their head after a second. It's true, if they went into battle with a grudge towards each other, it wouldn't end well for anyone involved.

Hunter finally notices that the sun is starting to rise. "Well, I've got a question."

"When do you not?" Liz teases.

He ignores her and continues. "Since I kinda have water powers now, shouldn't I be taught how to use it?"

Shade and Liz look at each other before Shade answers. "Well, I was already going to train you in demon weaknesses so I guess I could add water training to that as well. But just enough so you have basic control. We'll work on it more another time."

Hunter nods. "Ok. So, should we begin?"

"Um, no." Hunter looks at him in confusion. "I already told you to spend these next 2 weeks with those you care about."

"Yeah, ok. What does that have to do with no training?"

"Well Shade and I are gonna spend some time together as well." Liz answers.

"But there is someone that you need to spend time with." Shade adds.

"And who would that be?" Shade and Liz smile mischievously. Hunter immediately notices and gets a little worried. "Ok, what's going on?"

"Here's a hint. Who have we been teasing you about since we got here?" Hunter takes a second to think… and then blushes. "Hey, he got it. That took less time than I thought it would."

"Oh come on guys. We barely even know each other. Why would she even want to?"

"Hey, stop it." Liz scolds him. "You need to stop doing that to yourself."

"Ok sorry. But still, we've only talked for like an hour."

"Then use this time to talk to her some more." Shade points out. Hunter tries to argue… but can't come up with a good point. Shade smiles and then looks over Hunter's shoulder. "And now's your chance."

"What are you-" He is unable to finish his sentence as he's pushed back unexpectedly. He stumbles backward before bumping into someone. "Oh, sorr-" He turns around and sees Emerald and Mercury standing there.

Emerald smiles at him. "Is this how we're always gonna meet?"

Hunter smiles as well. "Hey, it wasn't my fault this time. Shade pushed me."

"So I take it you two are good now?" Emerald questions. She still remembers how angry Hunter got.

"I think so. I mean, he's still got a lot of explaining to do, but that's for later."

Emerald smiles. "Well that's good." She hesitates. "Do you wanna walk with us?"

"Sure, why not?" He smiles wide. He looks past Emerald and takes notice of Mercury. "Ya know, I don't think we've been properly introduced yet."

"Oh yeah. Hunter, this is Mercury. Mercury, this is Hunter." The two guys shake hands firmly, testing each other's strength.

"Sup?" Mercury says nonchalantly.

"Nice to meet you." They continue walking and talk, losing track of the time. They talked for hours, telling each other about their past, telling jokes, and whatever else they thought of.

After a joke from Hunter that they all laugh at, Mercury leans close to Emerald. "I see what you mean." She looks at him. "He's easy to talk to." Emerald smiles and nods.

Hunter suddenly stops, the other two becoming confused. He sighs. "I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for scaring you guys."

"What do you mean?" Emerald questions.

"I'm sorry for scaring you with me almost… dying and all that."

"Oh, well, it's not your fault." She tries to reassure him.

"But it is. If I didn't run off like that, that probably wouldn't have happened." He drops his head.

Emerald puts her hand on his shoulder and he looks at her. "Look, don't worry about it. It's a new day so don't dwell on the past." Hunter smiles wide. It was basically the same advice his father had always given him.

"Thanks."

"No problem." They continue to talk and make jokes on their way back from the forest, strengthening their bond very quickly. When they finally make it back to the dorm, the sun is nearly halfway through the sky, indicating it's about noon.

Hunter is the one to point it out. "Wow, it's around noon. How long did we talk?" The two shrug. "Eh, whatever. So, do you guys wanna hang out again sometime? Maybe spar?"

Emerald laughs. _He sure loves his sparring._ Before Emerald can respond however, Mercury speaks up. "Sure, I'd love to spar with you. How about tonight, in the training room?"

"Sounds awesome. I'll be there by 5:30." He says with a wide smile.

"See you then." Hunter nods and runs off to his dorm. _Well, this was a good day._


	25. Chapter 25

**Ch. 25**

As Hunter enters the dorm, he notices that Shade and Liz are the only ones present. "Where's everyone else?"

"They all went on dates." Liz explains.

"Oh, ok." He says with a smile.

Liz notices that he seems awfully chipper. "And how about you? You got a date?"

Hunter blushes and stutters. "What, no? We-Well I mean you could call it- but wait Mercury's there so…" He stops and composes himself. "I'm going to be sparring with Emerald and Mercury tonight." He manages to say calmly.

"Sure, _sparring._ " Shade says, implying much more than just sparring.

"It is." He practically whines. They look at him unbelievingly. "Whatever."

"When are you gonna go?" Liz asks.

Hunter looks at the clock. **12:47 PM.** "Well I said I'd be there by 5:30 so I got a few hours." Hunter then remembers something that they need to do. "We should probably talk to Ozpin."

"Oh yeah. He did want to talk to us." Liz adds.

"Well, let's go then." The three head to the tower of Beacon, wondering what they were going to talk about. The whole walk was completely silent, but that's how they like it. It takes them very little time to get to the tower and enter the elevator. When the elevator doors open on the top floor, Ozpin sits in his desk, seemingly waiting for them.

"Ah, finally, you are here." He takes a sip of his coffee. "What took you so long?"

"Well-" Hunter starts but is interrupted by Liz.

"This little shit almost died." She says with a small slap to the back of his head.

Ozpin almost chokes on his coffee. "What?"

"Yeah, it's kinda complicated. But, I'm fine now, so what did you want to talk about?"

Ozpin decides to hold his questions off for later and gets to the point rather quickly. "Well, seeing as how you have been here for a while, I was wondering if you wanted to make a new team."

Hunter stares at him in confusion. "What exactly do you mean?"

"I mean that I have a dorm available for a new team that is relatively close to the RWBY and JNPR dorms. If you want, it is yours, but you must have a team… and I'd say you already have one." He nods to Shade and Liz.

"Wait, really?" Ozpin nods. He turns to Shade and Liz. "Is that alright with you guys?"

They look at each other for a second, before nodding. "I don't see why not. I don't have any contracts to uphold right now and my kingdom's kinda turning against me so there's nothing I can do there anymore." Shade explains.

"Ok, so it's settled, You, Shade, and Liz are a team of Beacon from now on." Ozpin says with a smile… before Shade interrupts.

"Actually, there's a couple others I want on the team." Hunter stares at him in confusion.

"And who would that be?" Ozpin questions.

"Mercury. He has much potential and I think I can train him to put that potential to use."

Ozpin seems to ponder for a moment before nodding. "Ok, that is fine." He looks to Liz. "Is there anyone you want?"

"Actually, yes." Hunter looks at her with confusion now. "I want Emerald."

Hunter can no longer resist and asks. "Why?"

"Because she has some arcane power. I believe I can train her, much like Shade."

"Wait, how do you know she has arcane power?" Hunter questions.

"Because team RWBY has told me about how she can create illusions for specific people. That is arcane and I want her to rise to her full potential." Hunter thinks about it and nods, content with the explanation.

Ozpin nods. "That is fine as well. I will need to talk with Mercury and Emerald first to make sure they are ok with it. If they are, I will hold a ceremony tomorrow announcing your team to the rest of the academy."

They nod. "Ok. Is that it?" Hunter asks.

"Your dorm room number is 205, which is rather close to RWBY's dorm. Other than that, no. You are dismissed." They nod and leave, Hunter feeling very excited about finally being a part of a real team in Beacon… and some of his closest friends are a part of it.

They spend the rest of the day discussing strategy for the upcoming battle, talking about Hunter's new powers, and teasing Hunter about Emerald. After a while, Hunter looks at the clock. **5:15 PM.** He stands up and stretches his whole body out. "Well, I better get going."

"Alright. Have fun." Shade smirks.

Hunter just smiles and shakes his head as he walks out. He quickly heads to the training center, which is only a couple buildings away from the dorm. He enters through the training room doors at 5:35. Emerald and Mercury smile when they see him. "You're late." Mercury says.

Hunter looks at the clock on the wall. "By five minutes." They smile and meet up in the middle.

"So, Ozpin just talked with us." Emerald tells him.

"Really? That was quick."

"Yeah, he said that you wanted us to be on a team with you here at Beacon?" Emerald practically questions, still not 100% sure about the whole situation.

"Yeah well, it was less me and more Shade and Liz. Shade requested that you" He points at Mercury. "be on the team and Liz wanted you." He points at Emerald.

"Wait, why did Shade want me?"

"And why did Liz want me?"

"Well, they both said that they saw a lot of potential in you both and they wanted to help you reach your full power." This brings a smile to both of their faces. "So, what did you say?"

"Well we said yes." Emerald says as if it's obvious.

"You did?" Hunter is a little surprised.

"Yeah. I mean, getting the chance to work on a team with a lightning-controller, a shadow-controller, and a water-controller? Who would pass that up?" Mercury says with a smile.

"I know I wouldn't." Hunter agrees. "So, should we spar?"

"Hell yeah."

"How are we doing this?" Emerald asks.

"How about you two against me to start?" Hunter suggests.

They look at him in shock. "At the same time?" He nods. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, let's do it." Emerald and Mercury look at each other and shrug. They begin the sparring session with a lot of confidence… which quickly diminished.

They spent the next 3 hours sparring, most of the time it was Emerald and Mercury versus Hunter, all of which he won. "How the hell are you so fast?!" Emerald pants out.

"Years of training with Shade, and my semblance, and my speed rune." He smiles.

"Ok, you know what? This next one, no warping and no using runes." Mercury states.

Hunter simply shrugs. "Alright." He disables his stamina and speed rune and prepares to only use his natural speed. "You guys ready?"

"Just give us a second." Emerald says. Hunter laughs and Mercury uses that moment to attempt a kick to the side of his head, but Hunter grabs it with amazing speed. He throws him back and Mercury does a backflip to land on his feet.

"Did you really think that'd work? I know you guys are stronger than that. Come on, give me what you got." Emerald and Mercury nod at each other and attack simultaneously, Mercury going for a kick to the right side of Hunter's body while Emerald goes for a slice across his left side. Hunter kicks Emerald's hand away and then grabs Mercury's leg, flipping him over his head and throwing him. Hunter goes on the offensive and sweeps Emerald's legs out from under her. During that split second when she's in midair, Hunter kicks her in the side, sending her flying against the wall.

"Ahh, damn it." She says while on the ground. Hunter stands there for a second, but feels a kick in his back. He catches himself quickly and dodges the other two kicks that went for his head and legs.

"Whoo, nice job." They go into a spree of trading blows, blocking each other's attacks with amazing speed. Mercury goes for a spinning roundhouse to Hunter's head but he ducks under it and uppercuts Mercury, sending him flying back. "I have to say, it's been a long time since I've had a fight like this without Shade." He says with a smile. Mercury doesn't hesitate and shoots forward with right leg out… but he isn't fast enough. Hunter flips over him and kicks him in the back, sending him tumbling straight into Emerald, who was going for a backstab.

Both Emerald and Mercury are on the floor, panting heavily. "Alright, I'm done." Emerald says.

"Yeah, me too." Mercury agrees.

Hunter is also panting as well; although, not as hard. Without using his stamina rune, he got a little more tired than usual. "Alright, that was great guys. I gotta say, you'll be a welcome addition to the team. I can't wait to spar even more." He says with a smile… as the other two groan.

"I'm not sure if I can handle anymore." Emerald says.

"If you think that's difficult, just wait until Shade trains you for the upcoming battle." Hunter smiles at them.

"Oh God." Emerald can barely imagine how Shade is going to train them.

"Hey don't worry; I'll be there to teach too. I mean, I'll train you just as hard, but I won't be as cold about it." Hunter smirks.

"Ya know, even though that was difficult as hell," They look at Mercury. "that was an awesome session. I personally can't wait to fight even more."

"That's the spirit!" He looks at the clock. **8:45 PM.** "Alright, I guess I better head back." He heads to the exit. "See you guys tomorrow."

"See ya." They both say… before collapsing and taking a short nap.

As Hunter enters the dorm, everybody is laughing. Even Shade and Liz crack a smile. They all turn and smile at Hunter. "Sup guys?" He says with a smirk.

"Hey." They all say. "How was your time with Emerald?" Yang wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

"Shut up guys. Mercury was there too."

"Ooh, I didn't know you were into that type of stuff Hunter." Yang teases… before she gets hit in the face with a pillow. "Hey, I was just joking around."

"Whatever." Hunter says with a smile, and slight blush, on his face. "Shade, Liz, did you tell them about what Ozpin said?"

"Actually no. We figured you should tell them." Liz nodded towards him.

"Wait, what did Ozpin say?" Ruby says with confusion.

"Well, we went up and talked with him and… he's giving me, Shade, Liz, Emerald, and Mercury our own dorm room and is officially making us a team of Beacon."

They sit there in shock, before wide grins appears on all of their faces. "That's awesome!" Ruby exclaims. The others voice their agreement.

"Yeah, and our room is right down the hall from yours, so we can still talk a lot."

They all grin and pull Hunter into a group hug in the middle of the room. "That's amazing Hunter." Blake then turns to Shade and Liz, who seem to be avoiding the hug. "Don't think you're being left out of this. Come here." She she reaches over with her hand. They hesitate, before she drags them over into the group hug.

Hunter looks at them all and almost tears up. "Thank you all so much. You've all been with from the start and you've always supported me. If it weren't for all of you, I have no idea where I'd be."

"Dead." Liz says.

"Boring." Yang adds.

"Cooking." Weiss adds.

He laughs. "Maybe. Thank you guys so much. I love you all." They hug once more, conveying all the love they feel for each other. Once they separate, Hunter wipes his eyes. "Ah, damn it. You guys made me cry." They laugh, still crying happy tears. The only ones not crying is Shade and Liz, but their facial expressions still show happiness. "So, tomorrow there's gonna be a ceremony where Ozpin will officially announce our team, so be ready for that."

They nod. "We will be."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Yang says.

"Alright well, I'm a little tired from sparring and, ya know, dying so Imma sleep. Night." He gets into his bed and almost immediately falls asleep. The others yawn and each go to their respective beds, also falling asleep rather quickly.

 **The next morning**

Hunter wakes up at 6 in the morning, for once not being the first one up out of team RWHBY. Blake was up before him, evidenced by her bed being empty and the shower running. The morning went by rather quickly for all of them, each taking their showers and then eating a Hunter-cooked breakfast. It went by so quickly that it only felt like a couple hours before they heard the announcement, which was actually at 12:00.

"Attention all students, please report to the auditorium within the next 20 minutes. I repeat, all students, please report to the auditorium within the next 20 minutes. Thank you."

They all look at each other. "Well, I guess that's for us." Hunter points out, feeling a little nervous.

Weiss puts her hand on his shoulder. "You'll do great." She says surely. "Let's go." They all nod and start heading for the auditorium.

As they were walking to the building, Hunter saw Mercury and Emerald. He waved them over and they followed. "You guys ready?" He asks.

"Ready as we'll ever be." Mercury answers. Hunter nods, understanding what he means. It was one thing for him to stay here and even participate in certain hunter activities but to be officially announced as a hunter and be given a team was a whole 'nother level. Mainly because of his father. After this, he'll finally be a hunter, just like he and his father always wanted. It almost brings him to tears but he holds them back, staying strong.

As soon as they enter, Ozpin spots them and waves them over. RWBY motions for them to go and says that they'll be great one last time. They walk to the left side, at the bottom of some stair that lead onto the platform. "Are you all ready?" Ozpin asks. They all nod. "Good. I'll start in just a couple more minutes. You'll know when to come up. Now, this is the order I want you to come up in. Shade is first, then Emerald, Mercury, Liz, and then Hunter will come up last."

"Ok." Hunter says.

A few minutes after that, the lights begin to dim and Ozpin walks onto the stage with his cane, still leaning on it more than normal. "Hello everyone. I have called you all here for a very important announcement." He then goes into this speech about being a hunter and all the responsibilities that come with it. Once he finally finishes, he gets to the point. "The point of this meeting is to announce a new team to Beacon." The crowd breaks into murmurs. "May I introduce Shade, Emerald, Mercury, Liz, and Hunter." They each come up as their names are called. "This new team shall be called team HLMES, (Holmes) with Hunter as the team leader."

Hunter looks shocked for a moment. _Me, team leader? Can I really do this?_ He looks to his teammates and they all give him an approving smile. _I can do it, as long as I have them by my side._

Ozpin gives each of the new team a firm handshake and congratulations. He finally reaches Hunter and gives him a handshake. He also leans in and whispers, "Your father would be proud." They separate and Ozpin gives him a wide smile. Hunter nods appreciatively.

The announcement goes on for a little longer with Ozpin giving a couple more speeches, many people congratulating them on being an official team, and other things. They finally get to teams RWBY and JNPR and they greet them with wide smiles all around. "Congratulations guys, especially you Hunter." Ruby beams a grin at him.

"Thanks. I didn't expect to get team leader." He admits.

"Trust me, the last thing I expected was to be team leader, but trust me; Ozpin knows what he's doing." The others nod in agreement.

"Thank you." They all head back and stop in front of RWBY and JNPR's doors, Shade holding Hunter's bed from RWBY's room. "So," Hunter starts. "I guess we head to our own room now."

"Yup." Yang suddenly hugs him. "I'll miss you."

"Hey, we'll be right there. I'll still cook you guys breakfast and we can even have sleepovers sometimes." Hunter smiles.

"Promise?"

"Promise." They separate. "So, I guess we better check out the room." He starts walking down the hall. "See ya later." He waves. The others waves as he leads his new team to their new room.

He takes the key Ozpin gave him and opens the door. He walks in and immediately notices it's much bigger than RWBY's room. It has 4 beds, but there are two bathrooms instead of one and everything's a lot more spread out.

There is a desk in front of the window and two beds on each side of the room. There are two bathrooms on the left side of the room, one towards the front and one towards the back. Hunter immediately gets design ideas for the room and turns to the others. "Well, time to get to work."


	26. Chapter 26

**Ch. 26**

 _ **A/N: My apology for the long hiatus and much more is in Chapter 28.**_

"Whew, finally we're do- Shade what the fuck is that?" Hunter asks, looking over at Shade's side of the room.

"What, it's just a poster."

"Take it down." Hunter says, already getting a little annoyed.

"Why?" Shade began to whine

"It's a disgrace."

"No it ain't, it's the sacred mountain Fuji-san." He tries to defend.

"With a girl in a bikini riding a snowboard down it."

"Sooo?"

"WIth a sword." He adds.

"It brings out the character."

"You know what, whatever. I don't even know why I try to argue with you." Hunter exasperates. "Well anyways, the last thing we need to take care of... the beds. How are we gonna fit all of them in here?" He gestures to the now smaller area. They had put many dressers, posters, and other personal things, which now left very little room for the beds.

"Well, Liz and I can share a bed, so that's one less to worry about." Shade says as begins to throw one out of the room.

"Well we still need a little more, so a bunk bed?" Hunter asks with a shrug of his shoulders, looking around the room.

"Or, or, now just bare with me now…" Shade puts his hands up. "you and Emerald can share a bed."

"FUCK...OFF." Hunter tries to threaten, but ultimately fails because of how red his face is.

"Whatever, PANSY." Shade waves "Emerald, if you want, you and Liz can share the bed. I'll probably just sleep on the window sill like usual."

"Uh… um okay thanks." Emerald stutters, still blushing from what Shade said.

"No problem, are you okay with that Liz?" Shade asks

"I don't care as long as she doesn't have nightmares as bad as yours." She says giving a pointed look at Shade.

"Lets not talk about that, okay." Shade says with a downcast look

"Well that's settled. What do you think? Three beds too much?"

"It's fine" says Hunter, still a little embarrassed from the earlier suggestion.

"Yo, let's get a 70-inch tv and play some videogames." Mercury finally speaks his thoughts.

"Great Idea" Shade says, "It's been forever since I got to play some games."

Liz gets irritated. "COOL, why don't you two go get it from town?!"

"Okay." they say in unison, oblivious to her sarcasm.

"What, that's not what I- and they're gone." Mercury and Shade run out of the room, leaving the others alone. "Goddamnit, not another one like him." She refers to Mercury.

 **Later that day**

"Whew, that was quite the haul." Shade exclaims after helping Mercury put up the new TV.

"Again, why didn't we get some help?" Mercury turns to him. "Why did you insist on carrying it all the way back here?" Mercury asks, a little exasperated.

"It builds character." He simply answers. Mercury looks at him confused, before shrugging his shoulders.

"What should we do now?" Mercury asks, stepping back and taking a look at their new addition to the dorm.

"Well, what are your plans for the next two weeks?" Shades says taking a long hard look at Mercury.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Mercury says feeling a little uncomfortable

"Well….is there anyone that you care for?" Shade asks worried about getting to personal.

"There's Emerald...but only in like a sister way. I guess I don't have anyone that I'm interested in at the moment." Mercury states, a little embarrassed he would ask something like that.

"That's cool, I was just wondering if there was anyone you wanted to spend time with, but if there isn't…" He stops for a second. "I'm sure Liz wouldn't mind if you came with us" Shade sort of blurts out. "I'm just saying, since we're not doing anything specifically special, we spend a lot of time together anyways and we were planning on going on a skiing/snowboarding trip. If you're down."

"Wait, wait, wait so you're inviting ME on a trip?" Mercury asks with wide eyes. _I just met this dude, why does he want me to go on a trip with him?_

"Uh, yea." Shade says with a _wasn't it obvious_ look pointed at him

"Why?"

"Well, it would be a good way to get to know you and for you to get to know us, and also to take your mind off of everything. To just give yourself some time to just relax, and have some fun, plus you've never went on one of our trips before. You don't have to decide now, you can think about it all you want, just get back to me within the next few days, Okay?"

"Yea, sure." Mercury says still a little stunned by what Shade just offered.

At that moment, Emerald and Hunter walk in, Emerald trying to stifle a laugh. She ultimately fails. "That was an interesting day."

"I don't think there's a possibility of a boring day around you." She smiles wide.

"Ya know, that's probably true." He smirks.

"I have a question." She says after a few moments. "Why do you smirk so much?"

He's a little taken back by the unexpected question. "Um, well, I think it's from multiple things." He says with a thinking face. "Shade always used to smirk and I spent 5 years with him."

"I still don't smirk as much as you." He suddenly says before leaving.

"That's true. I think it's also the fact that I've grown up knowing things most people don't." He nods. "Even things about themselves. Because of that, I've gotten used to smirking." He slightly shrugs his shoulders.

"So, what do you think you know about me?" She challenges him, smirking like he does.

"Well," He thinks for a second. "I know that you've had a rough life. Somehow, Cinder saved you from a terrible life, so I'm assuming you were homeless and were forced to steal to survive." He says calmly.

"Wow… you really don't know how to read people." She jokes.

He smiles. "Hey, I tried."

"A for effort." They both laugh.

He then looks at her, a smile still present, but his eyes convey the seriousness. "But seriously, was I right?" She looks down for a moment. "You don't have to say anything. I was just curious."

"No, it's fine. It was just a hard time in my life, that's all." She takes a deep breath. Hunter sits on his bed and pats the seat next to him. She accepts the offer and sits down. "When I was 7, I lived with my parents in a small town called Edo. It was a perfect childhood, I had a lot of friends, I had good meals every day… I had my parents." She stops, her eyes beginning to sting a small bit. Mercury finally comes over and sits on her right, putting an arm around her.

"You don't have to tell me if it's too hard." He assures her again.

She shakes her head. "I'm fine, just give me time." Hunter nods and patiently waits. After what felt like a couple minutes, she starts again. "One day, I was playing in the field like I usually did… when I heard screams. When I looked at the entrance to the town, I saw them. Grimm, dozens of Grimm, tearing people apart." She drops her head. "I didn't even have the chance to say goodbye." A few tears drop from her eyes as both Hunter and Mercury gently hug her.

"We're here for you." Hunter quietly assures.

"Yeah. Like I'm gonna stop after all these years together." That elicits a smile and small laugh from all of them.

"Thanks guys." She says appreciatively and hugs them tight. They stay there for a few moments, just enjoying each other's company, before they separate. "That's why I agreed to Cinder's plan, to try and take down Beacon. I had always blamed Ozpin and the hunters for failing to protect my parents." She says, wiping a stray tear from her cheek.

"I understand." Hunter says.

Emerald looks at him. "What do you mean?"

"For a little while, as you saw, I blamed Shade for many things." Emerald nods. "I blamed him for everything bad happening to me, all of my scars, all of the fights,… all of my near-death experiences."

"Wait, ALL?" She questions.

"Yeah, what you saw wasn't the first time I almost died." He shrugs.

Mercury stands up after patting her on the back. "Well, I'm gonna go find Shade and Liz."

Hunter looks at him with curiosity. "Why?"

"I need to talk to them about their trip." He says simply, not really wanting to give it away. It's a little weird going on a snowboarding trip with people he just met.

Unfortunately for Mercury, Hunter knew exactly what he was talking about and pieced it together. "Wait, Shade invited you on his snowboarding trip, didn't he?"

Mercury looks at him with wide eyes. "How'd you know?"

"Because he doesn't tell anyone about the trip unless he invites them."

"Has he invited you?"

"Nah." Hunter shrugs

"Why not?" Mercury asks with curiosity. _I thought they were like brothers._

"I don't know."

Suddenly the door opened and Shade's head poked through,"Because you have shit you need to do."

"What do you mean?" Hunter asks, confused.

"Really?" Shade just stood there staring at Hunter with this _come on_ face.

"What?" Hunter whined, still not getting it.

Shade then turned to Emerald, "Take this dumbass on a date already cause he's obviously not gonna do it himself." Emerald and Hunter turn bright red, getting to tomato on the color spectrum.

"Shut the hell up." Hunter's starting to get sick of his not-so-subtle teasing.

Shade puts his hands up. "Alright fine, whatever. Come on Mercury, let's go."

"Liz is alright with it?"

Shade hesitates. "Yeah, of course she is. Let's go."

"Alright, see ya." He waves to Hunter and Emerald as he leaves with Shade.

"Wait are you guys leaving today?" Emerald asked a little worried

"No, probably not for a day or two, there's no need to worry." Shade said for once not in a mocking tone, "We have to get him fitted for a… you ski or board?"

"I board." Mercury responded

"Cool, you roll with with me. Liz skis so yea. Lets pick out a board, ." Shade says as they headed out to the hallway, seconds after the door closes Hunter and Emerald hear a muffled " _HOLY SHIT!"_

" _I know, sick right."_

" _What is this place?"_

" _My shadow world, pretty much where I hold all my stuff."_

"Hold on, let me see what's going on." Hunter gets up and opens the door… Only to see a dark portal, with black flames making up the sides, opened, and a bunch of snowboards conveying past.

"So which one do you wa-"

Hunter closed the door. "Yea that's what I thought." He goes back towards the bed.

"What?" Emerald wondered.

"Nothing, just Shade showing Mercury his arrange of snowboards from his shadow world." He explains as he lays down on the bed next to Emerald.

"Shadow world?"

"It's where Shade holds everything, and anything, that he owns or took."

"Uh…."

"Just forget it. It's complicated." He exasperates.

"I get the feeling that everything's a little complicated with you and Shade." She smiles.

"Eh, true." He agrees.

"Okay, well what to do you want to do for the next couple weeks?" Emerald says, blushing brighter than the sun.

"...I d-... I don't know" Hunter blushed, scratching his head."Um… what do you want to do?"

"Um… I don't know."

"GO ON A FUCKING DATE!" They hear from the hallway.

"SHUT UP SHADE!" Hunter yells back.

"PANSY!"

"He's not even in the room, dick." Hunter sighed.

"Ye-"

"You want me to come in there, I'll fucking coming in there."

"STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THIS"

"Hey it's okay." Emerald says

"How? He's such an ass..."

"Well I for one think he's funny. Yes he can be annoying when he's pressing into personal matters, but it's his way of showing he cares. Plus he can be kinda sweet."

"What has he done to you to alter your mind? That monster." He says, trying not to smile.  
"No he didn't do anything." She rolls her eyes. "We just talked for a while and it was fun."

"Oh god, he's done it, he's toyed with your mind." Hunter begins to exclaim " What more will he do, next you'll going on crazy adventures with him for two years and coming back with scars and a new crazy story."

"FUCK OFF. I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO HER!"

"Will you-" but Hunter is suddenly caught off guard by Emerald dying of laughter and falling off the bed with a loud _thud_ , not breaking her laughter.

"What's so funny?"

"Yo-you... two… it's just…so funny. You're like brothers." She can barely get it out.

"... it's not that funny." He mumbles.

"YES IT IS!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" This only encourages her laughter, until she's actually crying from laughing so hard. _Thud_ is heard outside the dorm and a more masculine voice begins laughing as well. _Must be Mercury._

"I-I can't..." Is all she can get out as she laughs even harder.

Even though Hunter is slightly annoyed at Shade, he can't help but smile at Emerald… at seeing her happy. _I hope I can make her happy someday_ he wonders. A _thud_ is heard from the hallway outside the dorm… and a masculine voice begins laughing. _Must be Mercury._ Emerald stays on the floor, laughing harder and harder as if she just saw a bird, using an eggshell as clothing, floating through space.

Hunter shakes his head and lays down on the bed against the left side of the room, his legs hanging off the side. Once Emerald finally gets control of her laughter, she joins him on the bed, laying in the same position on his right. "Is it really that funny?" He asks after a moment."

"Yes, yes it is." They both smile and Hunter laughs a little bit.

After laying there in comfortable silence for a few minutes, Emerald decides to nervously break it. "So, what are your plans for the next 2 weeks?" She attempts to ask innocently.

Hunter almost immediately picks up on it and decides to play along. "Eh, I wasn't really sure. Maybe some sparring, maybe some hanging out with team RWBY, though I doubt that'll happen."

"Why not?"

"There's no chance that they're not spending these two weeks attached at the hip." Emerald looks at him in confusion. "After everything that's happened this past week or so, with Shade and Liz and the demons and me almost dying," Emerald's face turns somber. "they've barely had any time together."

Emerald then remembers something. She didn't think anything of it at the time, but the way Ruby and Weiss sat together in the hallway after Hunter ran off, it seemed like one of the few moments that they had with each other in a while, even though they weren't alone. "That makes sense."

"Yeah… and they deserve some time together. They only started dating a few days ago and they have not been able to do anything together. That's why I'm really glad that Shade is giving everyone time to spend with those they love and he didn't start training immediately." He says with a smile.

Emerald nods and then looks at him with slight curiosity. "Ya know, I've been meaning to ask you about that. Why did he give us all time? Why didn't he start training immediately?"

Hunter adorns a very sad and somber face within an instant. "If I tell you, I don't want you to tell the others yet. You can tell Mercury, but I don't want the others thinking about it like this, ok?"

Emerald nods, recognizing the seriousness in his voice. "He gave us time because of multiple reasons. For one, the training will take a lot out of them and their time. During the two and a half months we'll be training, they won't have any time to spend with their loved ones or they'll be too tired to do so."

"Really?"

"Yes, it will be that intense."

"Why?"

Hunter's frown deepens even more. "Because the demons are not something to take lightly." He looks at her. "Did you think Cinder was powerful?"

"Before I met you and Shade, yes."

"She is nothing compared to what I have seen from the demons… to what I have fought." Emerald looks at him in shock… and then notices a faint blue light coming from his body. It takes her a bit, but she remembers the scar that she saw earlier, the magical one. It's above his hip on the left side. The glow is coming from it.

"Hunter, what happened?" She asks, worried about him once again.

He sighs after a moment. "I was being an idiot. I was thirteen years old, training with Shade like we normally did." The glow becomes slightly more intense as he almost shudders at the memory. "And then he said that he had to deal with something. I got curious, so when he opened the portal, I followed him."

Emerald shakes her head. "Of course you did."

"Yup, and that's not the end of it." He stops, preparing himself for one memory he'd rather forget. "At the time, I was quite confident in my abilities. I saw myself as a very powerful and strong person, so what's the first thing I do?" He looks at her. "I go up to the biggest guy I see, who was at least 8 feet tall, and challenge him to a duel." He turns away.

Emerald gasps. "Really?"

"Yup. At first he denied… and denied and denied and denied. So, I figured, _I'll do what I do with Shade. That always works._ Just to make it clear, I used to force Shade to spar with me if he denied… it didn't go well this time." He shakes his head and scoffs. "God I was an idiot. By the end of it, I had a spear sticking me to the wall through my stomach."

He touches the glowing scar and after a second, the glow grows faint before disappearing altogether. "It was a magical spear as well. I still don't know what it did to me or would've done, but I have it now." He then turns to her and smiles. "But, I gotta admit, the demon had a few bruises and cuts."

"And who was this demon?"

"According to Shade, he was one of the most powerful demon generals and, let's just say he had a grudge after that."

"What do you mean?"

"Apparently, he really wanted to kill me for some of the bruises. Shade was able to calm him down, but I'm sure he'll be at the battle and try and kill me immediately."

"How do you know that?"

"Demons hold grudges."

They both have a small laugh; though, Emerald could tell Hunter was forcing it. "What's wrong?" She asks with sincerity.

"I-I… I don't want anyone to die." His eyes begin to sting.

"Nobody is going to die."

"You don't know that!" He yells, standing up suddenly. "The demons, they don't have mercy, they don't hold back." He sighs. "I've made so many friends here. So many people that I don't want to lose." Emerald stands up and hugs him tightly.

She doesn't say anything and instead just provides comfort. _I was never good with words anyways._ They stay there for a few minutes, a stray tear falling from Hunter's eyes every now and again, until they finally separate. She looks him in the eyes. "You won't lose us. I promise." Determination and certainty is clear in her voice.

Hunter nods. "Ok, Imma hold you to that." He smiles.

They sit on the bed and Emerald breaks the silence once again. "So, you never answered me." He looks at her in confusion. "What are you gonna do for the next two weeks?"

"Oh." He shrugs. "I don't know."

 _Alright, now's the time._ "Well," He looks at her. "do you wanna maybe… go out?"

Hunter looks away and puts his hand on his chin, pretending to think about it. "Hmm, I'm not really sure."

Emerald looks horrified… until she notices the smug look on his face. She slaps his arm. "Asshole." Hunter laughs. A real laugh this time.

They stay on the bed for a few moments before Hunter speaks. "Yes." She looks at him in confusion. "I would love to go on a date with you."

She smiles wide and gives him a quick peck on the cheek. "Awesome."


	27. Chapter 27

**Ch. 27**

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. What do I do? Why did I agree to it?" Shade watches, eating popcorn on the desk, as Hunter paces throughout the dorm room, panicking. "I've never even been on a real date. Fuck!"

Shade puts his popcorn to the side and finally decides to say something. "Dude, calm down." Shade attempts to tell Hunter, but Hunter is too freaked out.

"How am I supposed to calm down?!" Hunter interrupts. "What if something goes wrong? What if something tries to kill us? What if she doesn't like me? What if the restaurant spontaneously combusts and explodes?"

 _Ok, I can see all of those except the last one. What is he even talking about?_ "Look man, if you would stop freaking out, then you'd be able to see that you've got nothing to worry about." Hunter, again, tries to interrupt Shade, but he's not allowing it this time. "Shut up and listen." Hunter's words die on his lips as he stands there uncomfortably. "Finally. Now, when you were hanging out before, how did that go?"

"Great." He says almost immediately.

"And you were being yourself, correct?"

"Yeah. We were just making jokes and hanging out. It's amazing… she's amazing." He says dreamily.

 _Oh God, he's hopeless._ "Then that's all you need to do. Be yourself dumbass."

"What?"

Shade literally facepalms. "If she asked you out when you were being yourself, then just be yourself on the date and it will go FINE!" Shade yells, exasperated.

Hunter jumps back, not expecting the yell. He then thinks about it and realizes that Shade is correct. "You're right Shade. Thank you."

"No problem dude. Now, go have fun and make some sweet lo-" Shade is unable to finish the lewd sentence as he's thrown out the open window. Hunter notices a black crow watching him. Not any old crow, but the same one from when he almost died. In the moment however, Hunter brushes it off as a coincidence. He leans out the window and after a few seconds, Shade's head pops out of the bush he landed in and glares at Hunter. "What, all I was gonna say is-" Shade is cut off as the window is slammed closed. "Humph, whatever." Shade skulks off.

 **Team JNPR's Dorm**

"Do I seriously not have anything to wear?" Emerald throws yet another outfit to the side as she looks through her belongings. She put some of her stuff in the JNPR dorm room since she was staying there for a bit. _Apparently, no decent clothing. I need to find something for tonight._

"Hey, it's alright." Pyrrha says from her place on the bed. "What about the green dress you wore at the dance?"

Emerald looks bashful and sheepish. "Um, yeah, I kinda burned it afterwards. Dresses aren't really my thing."

"Oh. Well, we can still go to Vale and buy something." Pyrrha stands up and goes to the door.

"But, I don't have any lien."

"Oh, I have plenty. Don't worry about it."

Emerald nearly gasps. _After everything I've done, she has no hesitation to help me._ "I could never ask you to do that for me."

"Well it's a good thing you didn't ask then." Pyrrha leaves the dorm as Emerald stands there in shock. _Why would she want to help me?_ "Come on." She hears from the hallway. She runs out and follows Pyrrha to the airfield.

 **Later in Vale**

Emerald stayed silent on the airship to Vale, unless Pyrrha talked to her and even then, they were mainly one-word answers. When the airship, that felt like an eternity to Emerald, finally landed, the two girls began to explore, trying to find a good clothes shop.

After a while, Emerald finally says something first. "Where the hell is it?"

Pyrrha had mentioned a shop that she knew about that was really good… and yet she couldn't remember where it was. " _We'll find it sooner or later. Let's just look around."_ She said that about 30 minutes ago and they still haven't found it.

"I don't know. I swore it was around here."

"Obviously not." Emerald almost snaps, but she restrains herself. "What was it called again?"

"Ms. Wolfii's Palace." Emerald keeps a close eye out for anything saying **Ms. Wolfii's Palace** , but doesn't see it.

After some more searching, Emerald decides to make some conversation. "So, what are your plans with Jaune for these 2 weeks?"

Pyrrha visibly brightens and smiles. "Oh, we're gonna spend it in Ai."

"The city of love?" Emerald asks with slight disbelief.

"Yeah. We're gonna check out the museums and the big arena they have there." She says dreamily, obviously looking forward to it.

"But, isn't it like super expensive to go there and do anything?" She asks with clear curiosity.

Pyrrha looks a little bashful, "Yeah, well I'm kinda super rich." for keeping such a secret.

Emerald's shocked face only adds to Pyrrha's embarrassment. "What?!"

"All the lien from the fights and competitions I've won, it kinda adds up." She shrugs.

"Wow… does everyone know?"

She sighs. "No. It had never really came up and I don't like telling people that I'm rich."

"Why not?"

"Because everyone already looks at me as above them, as some type of great warrior that you're not even worthy to look at. Add in the fact that I'm rich and that would increase tenfold. I don't want that." She says somberly. Her lips then slowly pull upwards into a smile.. "That's why I'm with Jaune. When he came here, he didn't even know who I was. He looked at me as a normal person, which is what I want. He doesn't put me on some pedestal like everyone else does."

"I guess that makes sense." Pyrrha looks at her in slight shock. "You probably get overwhelmed from it all, being practically worshipped and looked up to as a role model. I can't imagine how much pressure you feel."

Pyrrha smiles wide. "Exactly. You're one of the few who understands and you're the first to understand almost immediately."

"Yeah well, I've kinda grown up not being seen and I've gotten used to it. To suddenly be seen as some prodigy and idol, to be known by everyone and asked for autographs just walking down the street, I'd hate it." Emerald calmly explains. She allows herself a small smile before continuing. "Which is why I'm never going to ask for your autograph, or "give you the respect you deserve" apparently."

Pyrrha lets out her small and cute laugh that Jaune would do anything to hear. "Well, thank you." Emerald nods. She looks around and finally sees what she was looking for. "Pyrrha," She grabs her arm. "look." She points to a sign. **Ms. Wolfii's Palace**.

"Finally." Pyrrha grabs Emerald's arm this time. "Let's go." They run off to the store, both excited for slightly different reasons. Pyrrha's excited because she'll get to help Emerald pick out a dress and she'll get to use her lien for someone else. Emerald's excited because she'll finally go on a real date and look nice for it.

When they walk in, both feminine jaws drop in awe. All around them, beautiful eye-catching dresses that would make heads turn at the Queen's ball. "Wow." Emerald nods, before turning to Pyrrha with confusion and suspicion.

"Wait, haven't you been here before?"

Pyrrha stammers. "Um, yeah of course I have. I mean, I told you I have so-" She locks eyes, Bright and vivid green with noticeable red. A sigh. "No, I had only heard of it."

"Why did you lie?" She asks with calm curiosity.

"Because I've always wanted to see it for myself, but I never really got the chance." She smiles with a mischievous look that not many thought she was capable of having. "Plus, I wanted you to look sexy for Hunter." Emerald's cheeks turn a bright red within seconds. Pyrrha laughs and turns away, gesturing to the dresses. "So, where do we start?"

 **30 minutes later**

"You seriously can't just pick one and call it good?" Pyrrha exasperates, leaning over. _This was exciting at first. Now, I just wanna go._

"No, I want it to be just right." She explains as she pushes multiple dresses aside, not happy with them.

"What about this one?'" Pyrrha stands up and grabs a blue, strapless dress that would hug her figure perfectly.

She barely spares a glance at it before turning away, shaking her head. "No, I don't like the jewels around the neck."

Pyrrha closes her eyes and sighs, putting the dress back. As she hangs it, her eyes catch a sight that beautifully reflects her green orbs. She grabs it and brings it out. "What about this?"

Emerald turns around, planning on rejecting it immediately but when she sees it, her eyes widen and her jaw drops. A stunning bright green dress with shimmering sapphire jewels, which makes a thinning line that stops in the middle of the cleavage, decorating the neckline. The bottom goes down just below the knees and has a little leeway, allowing the wearer to spin it in a circle. There are no straps and instead zips up in the back, showing a little further than the shoulders. "It's perfect." She grabs it and feels it with awe. The fabric is amazingly soft and is certainly comfortable to wear.

"Then that's the one. How much?" The green-haired beauty grabs the tag on the side and flips it over. Once again, her jaw drops and she gasps at the amount. "Well, how much?"

She turns it and shows Pyrrha. Now, Pyrrha has seen some expensive outfits before. _It can't be that bad._ She thought as she leaned forward to read it. Her eyes widen at the amount of zeroes. _Ok, maybe it is._ **250,000 LIEN** is marked in big black letters on the white tag. "Well, that's definitely the most expensive dress I've ever seen… but it won't make that big of a dent in my wallet, so let's go to the front."

Emerald stares at her in shock. "What? No way, I can't ask you to pay that much… on me no less." She whispers that final part.

"It's fine." Pyrrha waves it off as no big deal. "I've got way more than that in my account and I'd be happy to spend it on you… no less." Pyrrha says with a sympathetic look in her eyes, revealing that she heard the quiet end of Emerald's previous sentence. "Emerald, why do you look down on yourself?"

Instead of answering Pyrrha's question, Emerald asks another one. "Why don't you?"

Pyrrha is caught off-guard and stares at her in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"... I made you kill Penny." Emerald drops her head. "I'm the one that made you think you saw more swords than there actually were. "I'M THE ONE WHO-" She is cut off by quick arms wrapping around her. "What?"

"I know you did… and I've already forgiven you."

Emerald separates and stares at her in shock. "How could you forgive me after what I made you do?"

Pyrrha sighs. "Throughout my life, I've learned a lot of lessons. Don't hold your shield up too high, defense before offense, feet are shoulder width apart… but the most important one by far is: don't hold grudges." She smiles. "There's no point to them, because you never know what might happen tomorrow. Why hold a grudge and make an enemy, when you could forgive and have a potential friend?" Pyrrha grabs Emerald's hands and squeezes them gently. "We never know how we will die. I could die tomorrow, you could die tomorrow, Jaune could die tomorrow, so what's the point in dying angry when you could live happily?"

Emerald feels a single tear fall down her cheek and she initiates the hug this time. "Thank you. Thank you so much." Pyrrha doesn't say anything and simply hugs her tightly.

When they separate, Pyrrha smiles brightly. "Now, let's get you looking sexy for tonight." Emerald blushes, but nods and they go to the dressing room.

Pyrrha waits outside for Emerald to finish up, smiling as she always does. She hears a thump. "You alright in there?"

"Yeah, just… not used to dressing rooms." She says, clearly struggling.

She waits a few more minutes before Emerald finally opens the door. Pyrrha stands up, excited to see how she looks… and she was not disappointed.

As she walks out, the beautiful blue gems reflect the light across the room and all that is heard is a screech of pure joy from the redhead.


	28. Chapter 28

**Ch. 28**

 _ **A/N: Sup huntsmen and huntresses?**_

" _ **Don't just sup them, you just went on a like, 6 month long disappearance … idiot."**_

" _ **Shut up Shade, I had a lot to do."**_

" _ **You don't have a life, stop lying."**_

 _ **Pouts. "Shut up."**_

 _ **Anyway, I just wanted to say that I am so sorry about the super long hiatus I had. To be completely truthful, I hadn't planned to take such a long break. Yes, I did plan for a shorter break, maybe a month or so… but obviously it didn't go to plan. I also must admit, I kind of lost inspiration to write this story and a couple months ago, to write at all. But a couple weeks ago, I told myself: "Just start writing this story again and we'll see how it goes." And, well, I still don't have the same inspiration and motivation as I did when I first started, but I am a little bit more into it now. Again, I do apologize to any readers who have been waiting for the next chapter, which I must admit, I suspect is very little or none, but if there are any, I am very sorry. I am going to start making this more of a priority and get a chapter out at least once a month, hopefully every week or two. Also, I actually had a few chapters that I am going to post before posting this. I truly did not know I hadn't even uploaded these chapters, so I guess some extra chapters for you guys. If you couldn't tell by this Author's Note, I discovered this after writing this whole chapter so yeah. Sorry again.**_

 _ **Now, on to the story. I do have these final chapters of The Romance Tower planned out, for once. Yes, this story will be ending soon. To give you a basic outline, the next few chapters will be where Romance in "The Romance Tower" comes in. It'll be dates between many ships mentioned in this fanfic, with full chapters focusing on main ships and some side stuff for other ones like Flower Power and Arkos. (Actually, I may just start a short one-shot collection spin off series of these dates. Would make it easier on me. I'll think about it.) The ones after that will be Shade, Liz, Ozpin, and, later on, Hunter training the hunstmen and huntresses of Beacon to fight the demons. This will probably be shorter and probably be a little bit funny again. After that, it will be the major fight between the demons and Beacon. After that, it shall end with an announcement. I truly don't know if I've mentioned my future writing plans on here before but I hope I didn't. I want it to be a surprise.**_

 _ **So that's all I have to say except please enjoy and tell me how I do on making these next few chapters 100% romance. Please enjoy.**_

Hunter stands in front of the mirror in his team's dorm bathroom, straightening his tie barely an inch to his left. His black suit fits perfectly across his body, accenting the dark blue tie against the white buttoned shirt underneath. His normally dirty black pants have been cleaned ten times over and ironed twice that number, making sure that they were perfect. He adjusts his wrists one last time before taking a full look in the mirror. _I hope I didn't overdress._ He thinks as he hears a knock from outside. "Coming!" He fixes his hair one last time, even though he had already done that 100 times and nothing was out of place, and nervously exits the bathroom.

As soon as he opens the door and sees the aphrodite-level of beauty on the other side, he must stop his jaw from dropping past his knees. "Um, hi." Emerald says, obviously attempting to get his attention. He had been staring quite intently and hadn't said anything for a few moments.

"Oh," He blushes and comes back to reality. "hi. Y-You look stunning." He says, now both blushing rather intensely.

"Thank you. You look pretty good yourself."

"Thanks." They stand there for a moment, neither really knowing what to say now. Neither had ever been on a real date before and the fluttering in their stomachs became more and more prominent to both of them. "So," Hunter finally breaks the awkward silence. "shall we go?"

"Yes." They walk to the airship, both wanting to reach for the other's hand but never acting on it, too nervous to make such a move… until he hears a telepathic whisper.

" _Hold her fucking hand."_

" _Shade?"_

" _Yes you dumb fuck. Now hold her hand."_

" _What if she doesn't-"_

" _I swear to God, if you don't hold her hand right now, Imma shoot this 15-ton railgun straight at your head."_

" _Where did you-"_

" _Did I say you could ask questions? Don't worry about it."_

" _Where are you?"_

" _Like I said, don't worry about it."_

When the two finally make it outside, Emerald taps Hunter's arm. "Hunter?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is Shade above us with a huge gun?"

Hunter looks up and sees a huge gun pointed straight at him, A smiling Shade at the controls. A blue light begins to emit from the barrel and slowly becomes bigger. Hunter stares at him in shock for a few seconds before realizing that he should do what Shade asks. Hunter quickly grabs Emerald's hand and hopes that Shade sees it.

A few seconds later, the blue ball dims and disappears entirely. "Good boy." Shade says before flying off.

Hunter breathes out a sigh of relief. He really didn't feel like having his suit ruined.

Emerald then coughs to get his attention. He turns to her in slight confusion. She nods at their hands, a slight blush now present on her cheeks.

He looks away, immediately blushing a bright red. "Oh, sorry." He attempts to take his hand back… but finds that he can't. He looks at their hands and feels Emerald's grip tighten. He lifts his brown eyes to look into red and sees a mischievous smile on her face.

"So, where are we going?" She asks innocently.

Hunter stares in shock for a couple seconds before smiling and playing along. "That, you'll have to wait and see."

They both laugh and continue to talk on their way to the airship, much more comfortable than they were before.

 **Meanwhile…**

Shade flies through the sky holding his railgun, looking like a murder of crows to the naked eye. _"While I'm glad he did hold her hand… I really wanted to try this thing out."_ He sighs in disappointment and continues to fly before spotting what looks to be an uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean. His eyes widen and brighten as he looks to the powerful gun on his shoulder, then back at the island. "Hmm." He hums in indecisiveness. After a second or two of thinking, his lips twist into a toothy smile, grinning like a madman.

He begins flipping switches and pushing buttons as the railgun powers up again, a blue light travelling through the sides and barrel. He begins to aim it directly at the island, still smiling and with one last button… _ZIIIIIING!... BOOOOM!_ A blue beam shoots out of the front of the gun and hits the island within 1 second, resulting in a large explosion and debris flying everywhere. The island is gone. Shade is thrown backwards by the force and when he recovers, his hair is a total mess, his eyes are wide, and his mouth is hanging open. He then smiles wide and looks at the gun with admiration and love.

"SHAAAADE!" A female voice shouts out.

" _Oh God no."_ Shade quickly hides the destructive weapon in his shadow dimension and attempts to get back before she gets here.

"What did you do?" Too late. And so, the smacks and screams of Shade were heard all throughout the night.

 **Vale; Commercial District**

The two young students of Beacon walked through the nearly dead streets of Vale, illuminated by lamp posts as they went, their two arms still linked; though, Hunter was leading as he knew where to go. At this moment, Emerald got curious… again. "So, you gonna tell where we're going?"

Hunter smirked. "Have patience, young one." This was responded to with a slap to the arm. "Ow!"

"You do know I'm older than you, right?" She smirked back.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, there it is." He points with his unlinked arm to a rather fancy-looking restaurant. It's golden lights inside illuminated many older men in business suits with their wives in sparkling dresses, meant to let everyone know that they were rich.

"There?" She points to it. "No way, it's gotta be super expensive."

"Oh yeah, it's definitely expensive." He smirks once more upon her shocked expression.

"You have the lien for this place?"

He shrugs. "I never really spent much in my life. A lot in my savings."

"I can't ask you to spend that much on me."

"Good thing you're not asking then." He wears a full, joyous grin and begins to practically drag her. "Now come on, let's go eat some expensive stuff."

As they enter, every single eye is on them. Anyone under 40 has probably never entered this intimidating palace of a restaurant… and here comes a 17 year old in a rented tuxedo with his date. _"I hate when people stare at me."_ She looks up at Hunter and he quite simply looks at them all, a dangerous daring in his eyes. As his eyes pass each of the rich browns, greens, and blues, they look away, intimidated by the fire in his brown orbs.

He then leads Emerald to a lone table and pulls out her chair for her to sit and then pushes her back in, like a true gentleman. He sits down and, for the first time since they arrived in Vale, shows his nervousness.

Emerald reaches across the table and covers his hand. "Hey, it's alright. Relax."

He visibly calms down, no longer tense and professional but relaxed like he always is. He nods. "Thank you." They smile at each other and patiently wait for their waiter to arrive after taking a quick look through the menu… which takes a while.

Anger begins to build within Hunter. _"I know we're younger but I can pay for this, despite what the others in this place may believe."_

After nearly three minutes of waiting, a skinny, older, butler-looking waiter comes to their table. "Hello, my name is Henry and I will be your waiter for today. _"He sounds snobby too."_ Although he is annoyed, Hunter gets on his best behavior and gives the man a full smile. "Hello there. Um, I was wondering if perhaps we could have-"

"If I may interrupt sir," He says with an attitude, as if they are below him. "but _who_ are you two?"

"Why does it matter?" Hunter snaps back.

"Well, you two do not seem to be the… proper consumers that we serve." He pauses, trying to think of a more "delicate" way of putting it.

"And what does that even mean?" Hunter now glared at Henry, very irritated.

"I meant nothing by it sir, I just mean to say that-"

"Hey Emerald?" Hunter rudely interrupts the man. "You wanna get out of here?"

She grins widely. "Yeah." Hunter grabs her hand and they run out of the restaurant and into the night of Vale, smiling with each other. "Whoo, I really needed to get out of there."

"I could tell. I think you were about to do to him what you did to Adam." They laugh.

Then Hunter stops and realizes something. "So, um, where are we going now?"

She smiles and begins to lead him through the streets. "I know a place."

Hunter follows her curiously, but without question. She suddenly stops and Hunter barely stops himself from bumping into her. "What's up?"

"Here we are." She points to a small, hole in the wall club, named: **Sang's Palace**.

"What is this place?" He asks.

"It's a club." She responds. "I used to always go here if I needed to get a drink, relax and let loose, or just get away from Cinder." She reminisces about all the times she went here for that last reason.

"Then let's go in." He starts to walk towards it but Emerald stops him.

"Whoa, are you sure?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't exactly see you as the… club type."

"And I'm sure the first time you saw me, you didn't think of me as someone who fought demons when I was younger, did ya?"

"You… have a point."

"Exactly, now let's go." He smiles and pulls her inside, opening the door to the club.

As he enters, he's hit with multiple scents and his brain goes into overdrive trying to identify everything he hears, smells, and sees. Loud, pop music plays throughout the club, already making Hunter start to tap his foot to the beat. He smells all types of booze and alcohol. He sees bright, colored, rays bouncing throughout the room, lighting up the crowd dancing on the dance floor. "...Cool." Hunter simply responds.

Emerald can't help but laugh a little bit at that. "Come on, let's get on the dance floor." She practically drags him out into the middle of the crowd and try to dance… but their "formal clothes" are restricting them from doing so. Finally, Emerald gets annoyed and rips the bottom of her dress, allowing her more flexibility. "There we go."

Hunter laughs and starts to dance much more vigorously, showing off some dance moves that others can't help but laugh at. He doesn't care though. _"I'm having fun with Emerald, so I'm good."_

"Alright everybody, how y'all doin' today?!"

A man with a mic comes up on stage, asking a question to which the audience responds with: "WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!" including Hunter and Emerald.

"Cool, cool. Alright, so I came up here tonight to ask, as always… are y'all ready for some karaoke?!" Again the crowd yells and hollers in response. "Good, so who's gonna start us off tonight?" Everybody in the whole entire club is waiting for some brave man or woman to raise their hand… but it never comes. "Ah come on, let go of your fears and let's have some fun!"

Hunter debates within himself before raising his hand high, to which the crowd responds with clapping and yelling. _"I cannot believe I am about to do this."_

Emerald looks at him in shock and confusion as he walks up on stage.

"Oooh, we got a big man in a suit comin' up here, alright alright. So tell us, what's your name?"

"Hunter." He responds through the mic.

"Alright, so we got Hunter up here, the first one to start off karaoke night. What song you gonna sing first, Hunter?"

"Um." _"Well shit, I didn't really think about that."_ Then a song comes to mind. "It's a surprise."

"Alrighty then, well everybody, please enjoy Hunter's surprise song." He gets off the stage and waits off to the side.

Hunter tells the band which song to play and gets himself prepared. _"It's been awhile since I've done anything like this."_

As the music starts, other people immediately get into it, already cheering before Hunter even sings a single word.

" **First things first"**

" **I'ma say all the words inside my head"**

" **I'm fired up and tired of the way that things have been oh!"**

The band behind Hunter joins in.

" **Ooooooooh"**

" **The way that things have been oh!"**

" **Ooooooooh"**

" **Second things second**

" **Don't you tell what you think that I can be"**

" **I'm that one at the sail, the master of my sea oh!"**

" **Ooooooooh"**

" **The master of my sea oh!"**

" **Ooooooooh"**

" **I was broken from a young age"**

" **Taking my soul into the masses"**

" **Write down my poems for the few that looked to me, took to me, shook to me, feeling me singing from heartache, from the pain, take up my message from the veins"**

" **Speaking my lesson from the brain"**

" **Seeing the beauty through the…"**

The music stops for a second before coming back with a drop.

" **Pain!"**

Hunter yells out, letting go of his nervousness and letting it all out. Emerald, again, looks at him in shock from his passion, but smiles after a second and starts singing in the crowd with the rest.

" **You made me a, you made me a believer, believer"**

" **Pain!"**

" **You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer"**

" **Paaaain"**

" **I let the bullets fly, oh let them raaaain"**

" **My luck, my love, my God, they came from…"**

" **Pain!"**

" **You made me a, you made me a believer, believer"**

Now, Hunter is wearing his confident smirk, obviously happy with the crowd's reaction.

" **Third things third"**

" **Send a prayer to the ones up above"**

" **All the hate that you've heard has turned your spirit to a dove oh!"**

" **Ooooooooh"**

" **Your spirit up above oh!"**

" **Ooooooooh"**

" **I was choking in the crowd"**

" **Living my brain up in the cloud"**

" **Falling like ashes to the ground"**

" **Hoping my feelings, they would drown"**

" **But they never did, ever lived, ebbing and flowing, inhibited limited till it broke up and rained down"**

" **It rained down like…"**

Every single person in the building joins in.

" **Pain!"**

" **You made me a, you made me a believer, believer"**

" **Pain!"**

" **You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer."**

" **Paaaain"**

" **I let the bullets fly, oh let them raaaain"**

" **My luck, my love, my God, they came from…"**

" **Pain!"**

" **You made me a, you made me a believer, believer"**

" **Last things last"**

" **By the grace of the fire and the flames"**

" **You're the face of the future, the blood in my veins oh!"**

" **Ooooooooh"**

" **The blood in my veins oh!"**

" **Ooooooooh"**

" **But they never did, ever lived, ebbing and flowing, inhibited, limited till it broke up and it rained down"**

" **It rained down like…"**

By now, people passing by on the street, rich and poor alike, entered and joined the crowd, to the point of almost overflowing the club.

" **Pain!"**

" **You made me a, you made me a believer, believer"**

" **Pain!"**

" **You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer"**

" **Paaaain"**

" **I let the bullets fly, oh let them raaaain"**

" **My luck, my love, my God, they came from…"**

The crowd nearly shakes the building with their combined force.

" **Pain!"**

" **You made me a, you made me a believer, believer"**

With that, the entire crowd whistles and shouts at Hunter, obviously pleased with his performance. The man with the mic comes back on stage with an extra bounce in his step. "Whoo! That was amazing, don't y'all agree?"

"WHOOOOOOO!" The crowd responds with even more vigor than when the man first got on stage.

Hunter is grinning wide the whole time. _"That was… awesome!"_

"So Hunter, what do you have to say after that performance?" He holds the mic to Hunter, allowing him speak into it.

"That was an absolutely amazing experience. I mean, just, thank you all so much and I definitely had some fun. How about you guys?!"

Again, the crowd explodes in agreement.

"Alright, great job Hunter and we all hope to see you here again." Hunter nods and walks off the stage, many people congratulating him and giving him pats on the back… but he's not interested in that.

Through the people, he sees the green he's come to admire and pushes through the crowd to get to Emerald. When he finally gets there, they kinda stare at each other, Hunter unsure of what to say. "So, what'd you think?" He nervously questions.  
She grabs his left hand with her right and raises her left hand to his cheek. They slowly close the distance and when their lips touch, it feels like fireworks going off in every nerve of his body. _"Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh…"_ His brain went into a continuous loop of stuttering and unsuccessful attempts at computation. Luckily, his body reacted and not his brain so the kiss went smoothly.

The kiss lasted for half a minute before they separated, both flushed and a little shocked that it actually just took place. "So… I'm gonna take that as a yes, you liked the song." They both laugh and slowly dance to their own beat among the crowd.

Neither wanted this moment to end.

 _ **A/N: And there's the first chapter of my return to The Romance Tower. Hope you all enjoyed it, I certainly did. I actually really like writing straight up romance. It becomes very cute when you're not thinking about the demons that are coming to kill them all.**_

 _ **Also, I do not own the lyrics to the song Believer by Imagine Dragons that were used by Hunter in this chapter. As I said, it is called Believer and belongs to Imagine Dragons. I have no intention of copyright infringement. "REPEAT, I HAVE NO INTENTION OF-"**_

 _ **Smack!**_

" _ **Ow!"**_

" _ **Shut up, they get it."**_

" _ **Why are you so mean Shade?"**_

" _ **You wanna see mean?" Hides. "That's what I thought"**_

 _ **Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed, and have an amazing day.**_

 _ **H.G. AKA GalaxyExplorer74**_


	29. Chapter 29

**Ch. 29**

 _ **A/N: What's up you amazing huntsmen and huntresses, great to see you again. I've got another delightful chapter for you to read. This is a LOT… of WhiteRose fluff. A lot! Just to tell you, lots and lots of kissing and hugging and loving and going a little too high up that skirt Weiss! … Anyways, I mainly wanted to say, thank you all so much. I recently just surpassed the 10,000 views mark of all my stories combined, currently at 10,292. This story by itself is about 4,800, so close to 5,000 views. I know I've said this a billion times before, but I never imagined so many people would read this story. It's absolutely amazing and makes me really happy. So thank you all again.**_

 _ **Now, I'm just really quickly gonna do some shameless promotion cause that's how I am. Don't like it, leave… please don't leave, I need all the views I can get. I'm sorry. If any of you are thoroughly interested in creating your own RWBY character and getting more involved within the RWBY world and meeting other fans of it, I've got an amazing site for you. Again, if you'd rather not read about this, please just skip this section. The site is RWBY RP. It is a RWBY Role-Playing site where you create your own character. Your own name, outfit, physical description, semblance, weapons, stats, skills, combat, etc. It is a very in-depth site with combat based off of your stats (which you create according to how many stat points you have in the beginning) and you also use your semblance in the combat. Even if you don't wanna do combat, you can just role-play with awesome, super friendly people who will always help you out if you ask. If you do join and for some reason want to find me, I am Cerulean Sang on the site itself and Cerulean Sang (Gal) on the Discord server. Alright, shameless promotion is now over.**_

 _ **Just about everything else I want to mention will be in the bottom A/N so please enjoy and review if you wish to do so.**_

"Well, that was… interesting." Came a worried voice.

"To say the least." Another feminine one laughed and did not seem as worried as the other.

The red-themed bundle of joy and child-like innocence and the icy heiress to the Schnee Dust Company were lying in their respective beds in the RWBY dorm, talking about what just happened.

Weiss looks over to Ruby, whose head is hanging upside down from her bed above, and gives a slight glare. "How can you laugh? There's something coming to kill us."

"So? We've dealt with plenty of stuff. Grimm, Torchwick, Cinder. Everything will be fine." She waves it off but Weiss turns over, still worried.

"You don't know that." Genuine concern and uncertainty creeps into her voice.

Ruby sighs and drops down. "No, I don't." There's a deadly seriousness in her voice. She kneel onto the bed and puts her hand on Weiss's shoulder. "But I know that we'll make it. You wanna know why?" As no response comes from Weiss, she continues. "Because we are unstoppable together. We are partners in every way and nothing can break what we have. That's why we'll make it."

In a flash, Weiss's arms are wrapped around Ruby's back, nearly suffocating her of precious air. "I don't want to lose you when I just got you." The crying in Weiss's voice becomes apparent and clear, the tears beginning to wet Ruby's skirt.

Ruby's eyes go wide and she kneels down, hugging with just the same amount of love and care. "You won't I promise."

"How do you know?"

"Because I just got you too."

They look into each other's eyes before slowly closing the distance, kissing with the passion and heat of a thousand suns. Their lips meshed together perfectly, like a jigsaw puzzle.

As they slowly separate, their fiery eyes, burning with passion, stare into each other before Weiss suddenly gets up and grabs Ruby's hand, dragging her along. "Here, I want to show you something."

"Um, wha- ok then!" She is unable to finish her thought as she's dragged outside of the dorm, Weiss leading the way… very quickly if Ruby had to be honest. " _What is she doing?"_

The two lovers rush through the halls of the dorm, happy that everyone's probably asleep by this time and that they aren't getting stared at or stopped. "Weiss?! Where are we going?" Ruby asks while still being dragged.

"You'll see."

She responds simply, only making Ruby impatient… even more so than usual. But for Weiss, she is willing to wait, especially since she's never seen her act this way. SHe's always so composed and holds herself together. " _This is like… well, me."_ Impulsive and emotional, not always thinking before acting, something she's gotten into trouble for.

Even after they get outside, Weiss still drags Ruby along by her hand, just not as fast or intensely. After a second of walking, Ruby thought Weiss might pull her hand away, but she didn't. Their fingers interlocked, they walk closely together, enjoying the peaceful alone time. Ruby watches their hands swinging together in the moonlight and follows Weiss's arm up to the rest of her. She can't help but notice how the glow of the moon makes Weiss look three times as beautiful as normal… which is saying something. The light reflects off of her snow white hair, shining and glittering brightly, like the gorgeous stars that Ruby loved to gaze at as a kid… like how she is lovingly staring at Weiss right now.

"You're beautiful." Before she can stop herself, it comes right out… in fact, she didn't even know that she'd said it until Weiss suddenly stopped and adorned a deep blush that was only noticeable because of the moonlight. "What?"

"What you said." She whispers.

Ruby pulls her hand away and covers the sides of her face, similar to the famous painting of the man screaming. "Oh no, what did I say? I didn't even know I said anything. OhGodIhopeIdidn't-" Weiss cuts her off with her lips, shushing her silently but very effectively. It was short, but enough to send a surge of heat through Ruby's entire body on the cold night.

"You called me beautiful." She whispers, voice laced with lust, the distance between their lips very short.

A blush the same shade as Ruby's hoodie immediately becomes present and Ruby turns away, trying to hide it. "Oh." Her embarrassment is clear through her shy and timid voice, which rarely makes an appearance from the outgoing huntress.

"Hey." She slowly turns Ruby to look at her, her hand on her cheek. "Don't be embarrassed. It was sweet." She gives her another quick peck on the lips and grabs her hand. "Come on, I still want to show you something."

" _And here we go again."_ Luckily for Ruby's patience level, which was quickly dwindling, where they stopped wasn't very far from their destination.

They turn one of the corners of the main Beacon building and come to a clearing, which leads to the Beacon Gardens. In the clearing, there are several different types of beautiful flowers planted in small patches all around, leaving a narrow path that leads to a large fountain, with clear blue water spouting out of the top, in the center of the flowers. Past the fountain are many hedges with even more different color flowers growing out of nearly every inch of each hedge.

"Wow." Ruby stares in wonderment at the scene in front of her, her eyes darting to and fro, taking in the beauty one flower at a time. "This is… beautiful!" The bright magenta flowers stand out among the equally contrasted cerulean plants littered among the patches of grass. Then, a couple robins land and take a bird bath in one of the other fountains, chirping happily.

"Isn't it?" Weiss agrees and slowly walks along the narrow path, touching some of the tall purple flowers as she goes. "I found this a couple weeks after I first got here. Ever since then, if I needed to think or just get away from my father, I'll come here." She takes a deep breath and her shoulders relax, the usual tension and stiffness disappearing and replaced with a comfortable stance.

Ruby smiles wide. "I can see why. This place is… amazing." Ruby walks over to one of the tall purple flowers along the path and sniffs it, delighting in the extravagant scent it gives off.

Weiss smiles as well. Not a small smile or smirk or anything like the ice queen's usual smiles. A full smile, with joy and happiness reaching her eyes. As Ruby sees it, she feels extreme happiness and modesty, feeling special for seeing such a rare sight. "Thank you for showing this to me."

A light pink flashes across Weiss's pale cheeks. "No-No problem." She stutters out.

"Aww, you're so cute when you stutter." A trail of flower petals in the air is the only warning Weiss gets before suddenly being hugged.

"Ruby, get off me you dolt." She tries to snark through her blush so Ruby stops.

"You know you like it." Seems it didn't work.

"Rub-" Before she can even finish a single word, a pair of warm pink lips softly entangle themselves with hers, causing Weiss's head to temporarily stop functioning. " _Gets me every time."_

Her arms and lips respond in synchrony, kissing back with just as much passion, hands trailblazing a new path up and down Ruby's sides and back before settling just above her hips. They separate and stare into each other's eyes before crashing back together, love and heat radiating from their bodies. Ruby takes it to the next level, running her tongue along Weiss's teeth, asking for permission, to which Weiss grants it and opens her mouth. The two fight for dominance with their tongues, but eventually Weiss wins out… and Ruby has no objections, slipping her hand behind Weiss's hair and grabbing ahold of the back of her neck, trying to close the imaginary distance between them even more. Ruby's tongue suddenly darts into Weiss's mouth and a low muffled moan comes out, Ruby smiling against her lips as a result.

As they finally separate, panting from the intensity and foreheads pressed together, the background of beautiful flowers, plants, robins, and the fountain is a perfect backdrop for what would be a romantic movie scene with what Weiss says next… something she did not mean to. "I love you." She whispers out, still panting.

Ruby practically jumps from the revelation, staring at her with wide eyes. "Wh-What did you say?" She stutters out, completely baffled.

Immediately, Weiss's whole face flushes with immense heat, turning her cheeks as red as the red parts of Ruby's hair. "Nothing. I said nothing." She rushes out.

"Wei-"

"I didn't say anything, Ruby. Just forget it." Her icy demeanor returns in full force, snapping out at Ruby… but it doesn't deter her.

"Weiss?" Nothing. "Weiss, look at me." She commands. Again, no reaction. Ruby walks forward and puts her hand on her shoulder. "Weiss, look at me." Slowly, the white-haired huntress in question turns around but does not lift her head, so Ruby does it for her, softly placing her fingers upon the bottom of her jaw and lifting. What she sees surprises her beyond all belief. Wet, puffy, red eyes adorning the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that." She sobs out with a sudden outburst of tears and a voice laden with sadness and fear, which feels like a sandpaper belt destroying Ruby's heart.

"No, no. Don't be sorry." She hugs her with full force, trying to absorb all of her pain and even though she knows she can't, she's gonna give it her best shot. "It's ok." She holds her head with one hand while pulling her close with her other hand, going around her back.

"N-No it's not." Weiss still refuses to believe, as she falls deeper into her girlfriend's embrace.

"Yes it is."

"Why?" She questions after a second.

Ruby separates them and looks deep into her eyes. "Because... Because…" She struggles to spit it out, hesitating.

"Because why?" She lightly pushes.

"Because… I think I love you too." She smiles shyly and waits for her reaction, which consists of multiple things. Her eyes widen to immeasurable amounts, then it's disbelief, among other things. But after that, she closes the distance between them, crashing their lips together quickly. It's a kiss filled with hesitation-turned-confidence and a need for each other. They pull each other close, begging to close the distance between their bodies more and more. Again, Weiss takes control, but with more dominance than before, this time, barely asking for permission to deepen the kiss. They move to sit down on the fountain in between kisses, never taking their eyes off each other, which did result in a crushed flower or two but in this moment, they have other things on their mind.

They switch between deep, passionate kisses and short pecks, trying to unsuccessfully satisfy their hunger for each other's lips. Unconsciously, during one of the deeper displays of affection, Weiss's hands begin to travel up and down Ruby's sides and back. Ruby grins and lets out small, muffles noises of pleasure, one of which not so muffled when Weiss lays her left hand on her thigh and begins to suggestively caress her skin. Her other hand grips the back of Ruby's neck and they engage each other once again.

When Weiss's left hand travels up a bit too far however; Ruby slowly separates. "Weiss, wait."

It is in this moment that Weiss realizes she was attempting to do much more than just make out with her dolt of a girlfriend. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"Weiss, it's ok. I just don't think either of us are ready for… _that_ just yet." She nervously laughs.

Weiss laughs with her to make them both feel better about the whole situation. "I completely agree."

In response, Ruby gives her a small peck on the cheek. "Thank you." Then, she gets an idea. "Hey, you know something I used to do as a kid?"

"Hmm?" She hums curiously.

"Stargaze. I love just looking up and appreciating the beauty of all the stars in the sky." While speaking, she proceeds to look up and slowly gets a more and more nostalgic tone creeping into her voice. She finishes with a sigh.

Weiss's smile falters upon the sound of Ruby's sigh before she decides to cheer her up. "Well, I don't think we have anything to do tonight or tomorrow."

"Yeah?" She questions, not getting what Weiss is hinting at.

Weiss mumbles in frustration before spitting it out. "So we can stargaze for as long as we want!"

Instead of looking at her in surprise or with a pink hint on her cheeks like Weiss expected, she smile slyly. "What a great idea." She proceeds to lie down on the side of the fountain.

It only takes a Weiss a second or two to figure it out. "Wait, you planned this didn't you?"

"Shh, don't worry your pretty little head about it. Just look at the stars with me."

As much as Weiss hated to admit it, she really liked being called pretty by Ruby, even if it was a little demeaning. Nevertheless, she follows her lead and lies down the opposite way, allowing them both to lay on the fountain without knocking each other off. Their heads right next to each other and their bodies facing opposite directions, they can see exactly what the other does. As they gaze into the sky, Ruby begins naming off some of the constellations. "There's the Dippers, Aquarius, ooh ooh, there's gemini…" She points them out with her finger as she yells out each constellation in childlike joy. Weiss looks over at her and smiles. "What?' Ruby questions, facing Weiss as well.

"You're really cute when you're excited about the stars." Ruby blushes a deep red and Weiss initiates an upside down kiss, which Ruby immediately recuperates, preferring to do this rather than blushing and embarrassing herself. " _If there's one social thing I'm good at, it's kissing."_

And so, the two young lovers continued their date under the stars, enjoying each other's company and knowing that that's all they need to be happy.

 _ **A/N: Alright, that was really fun to make… if a little daunting and frustrating at times. I ran into more than one instance of writer's block on how to specifically continue and connect certain parts of this chapter in a cohesive way. In my opinion though, I think I did an alright job. If you disagree, please tell me why. I always wanna get better and I accept helpful criticism.**_

 _ **Also, there was a hidden quote in this chapter (the first time I've ever done this) that should be rather easy to find. It's been mentioned in lots and lots of movies throughout the years and is one of my favorite movie quotes. If you find it, please review or even pm me and I will give you a mention next chapter.**_

 _ **That's about it for this chapter, please let me know how I did, and get ready for some Bumblebee next time… this might get sexual, I'm not sure yet.**_

 _ **Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed, and have an amazing day.**_

 _ **H.G. AKA GalaxyExplorer74**_


	30. Chapter 30

_**A/N: Sup huntsmen and huntresses? Another romantic chapter here for you guys. I must say, I am really enjoying writing like this (complete romance). I know I've already said this but I am truly surprised by how much I love it. I guess that answers a question I've always had for myself; am I a romantic? Yes, I suppose so.**_

 _ **Now for my apology. Yes, I know I said I was gonna get a chapter out once every month and make sure to not go on another hiatus. While this one wasn't as bad as my other one, it was still a little while. To be honest, it's because I don't have nearly as much inspiration to write romance for Bumblebee. It's much more difficult for me than to write for WhiteRose or Hunter X Emerald. But, I'm back and finally have this chapter done after trying for weeks, and weeks… and weeks.**_

 _ **Now, this might've actually taken me even longer to complete… if I didn't have an idea. An idea I want to put into place as soon as possible. Here's the problem, this idea is huge, extremely ambitious and, to be honest, will probably take me years to do and I didn't want to move onto that without first finishing this story all the way through. I'm sure a few of you are wondering what it will be and if it will interfere with the other thing I planned to do. Well, it will interfere a little bit but I was hoping to have it as a chapter to chapter basis for each, switching off to each idea as I go. It'll be difficult, but interesting as well. As for what it will be, well, here's a hint.**_

 _ **Did y'all know that DC Comics stands for Detective Comics Comics? Great job DC! *Sarcastic clap***_

A man dressed in a black ninja suit with many hearts can be seen on the cover of a certain book that a certain faunus wants nobody to see.

"Whatcha reading?" A smirking blonde says suddenly from above, hanging upside down from the bed.

You don't get what you want all the time however.

Blake jumps in literal fright, just about chucking the book underneath her bed. "No-Nothing." She stutters. " _She can be really quiet when she wants to."_

"Oh really?" Since Blake is sitting up, Yang is able to get close to her ear and whisper. "You wouldn't lie to me, would you?" The lust that crept within her voice in less than a second sends shivers down the cat faunus's spine. "Cause if you did, I might just have to _punish_ you." Yang gently cups Blake's chin, slowly letting her fingers fall off, one by one.

" _She's not gonna win so easily."_ Blake works her own magic, leaning forward both to whisper in her girlfriend's ear as well as give her a good view of Blake's body. "Then I might just have to lie to you one day."

The cold shivers running down Yang's back doesn't help and she leans forward to gently bite down on Blake's neck… but they are unfortunately interrupted. "Yo, yo, yo, who's up in here?!" A familiar deep voice bellows out.

"Shade!" Yang angrily leers at him.

"Whoa, sorry. Didn't realize you two were about to-" _Slam!_ The door is thrown back, slamming the door in his face. He throws up his arms. "Well fine then." He walks away with no real destination in mind, a fresh bruise under his eye.

"Sorry about that." Yang apologizes.

"It's ok. Can't really predict when or where Shade's gonna appear." Blake consoles her. "But, now that that's handled, where were we?" She smiles slyly.

Yang smiles back and slowly leans in. "I believe that…" They get closer and Blake closes her eyes within an inch of contact before suddenly, Yang puts a finger on her lips. "...I was going to ask you a question."

Blake looks a little deflated but is also curious. " _If something takes her eyes off of this, then it must be pretty important."_ "And what is this question?"

"Have you ever been on a motorcycle?"

 **Vale, Unknown**

"I'm not so sure about this Yang."

"You'll be fine." Yang reassures her.

"But-"

Yang interrupts her. "Look, if you just hang on to me, I promise that you'll be fine." She looks into her eyes with genuine love and reassurance. "Plus, I won't go too fast. This is your first time anyway." She winks suggestively.

Blake shakes her head. " _I knew she couldn't be serious for long."_

"Here, put this on." Yang hands Blake a black helmet with one white stripe on each side. Blake straps it on and watches as Yang starts the black and yellow motorcycle up, revving the engine. "Ain't she a beaut?" She says longingly. Obviously, she hasn't had the opportunity to ride her beloved Bumblebee through the city streets for a while now.

After a couple seconds of waiting, Yang turns her head to look over her shoulder at Blake. "Hop on." She encourages.

Blake hesitates for a second before slinging her right leg over, hanging onto Yang's shoulders at first. "Ok."

"Put your hands around my waist. It helps you ho-" After barely a second, Yang feels two slender arms snake around her back and stop in front of her.

"Don't need to tell me twice." Blake whispers into her ear.

A chill travels down Yang's spine, eliciting a visible shiver from her. "Good." She attempts to say sensually, but a slight stutter still comes through. Blake instead ignores it and keeps close to Yang.

The blonde starts it up, revving the black and yellow, intimidating machine's engine up. "You ready?"

The reality that she is about to go on a motorcycle ride for the first time in her life finally sets in and she hesitates for a second, before finally responding timidly. "I-I think so."

"Hey, don't worry, I got you." Her girlfriend says genuinely. Blake nods in return, appreciating how Yang makes her feel much more confident.

Yang revs the engine one last time before kicking the stand up and slowly taking off as to not scare her kitten. Even then, she still feels the arms around her tighten slightly in fear, obviously looking for comfort. She continues at a slower pace than she usually takes through the streets of Vale, watching the lamp posts fly past as the cycle cuts through the wind.

After a few more moments, Blake's head begins to rise from its place in Yang's shoulder as she finally takes the chance to look around her… and she doesn't regret doing so. Her grip begins to loosen a small amount as she sits up straighter and watches the rest of the world zoom right past her in front of her eyes. The many lights, the buildings, the other vehicles, everything. It seems so small and insignificant compared to the two of them together. Blake and Yang, together. They seem bigger than the world itself in just these few moments. Blake smiles wide, squeezing Yang's sides in similar fashion as before, but for very different reasons.

" _Is this…? I think it is."_ Blake straight up grins as she comes to a realization. A great realization.

They continue through the roads, seeming to have no clear destination, or, at least to Blake there isn't. For Yang however, it's all she can really think of. A nice little place where they can do whatever they want.

Finally, after about 10 minutes of traveling through the city, the lamp posts become fewer in number as the amount of buildings and people dwindles noticeably, making Blake wonder where they are going, though, she doesn't bother to ask as Yang sped up a bit and the wind is whipping past them audibly and her words would only up being drowned out, lost in the air behind them. She trusts her, and sometimes, the unknown can be exciting.

The engine revs, vibrating against their thighs like a starving monster, hungry for freedom after having been put away so long. The beast is rather impressive, reaching triple digits within seconds if given the proper command to.

Finally, they begin to slow down after having long existed the city of Vale and the area around them seeming to be in the middle of nowhere… which is partially true as it's not in any major city's vicinity.

With no clear indication that it was even possible, Yang takes a sharp right turn off the small highway onto an even smaller dirt road that's still even enough for a cycle to travel through without any major problems or bumps.

Finally, after about half a minute of throwing dirt behind them, they come to a beautiful clearing in the middle of the tiny forest. It's a small circle with several trees surrounding it, an opening visible through the top, giving a perfect view of the stars and the broken moon above them with only the very edges of the sky cut off to where you can't see them.

There are many bushes of flowers, almost like a garden, within the circle as well with many different varieties, sunflowers, roses, lilacs, and a couple others.

Blake looks in wonder and awe of how this could ever be made naturally. How everything could align so perfectly to show the true beauty of the world. This little circle in the world, unaffected by the things that affect the heros and innocents of the world. Grimm, Cinder, Salem, Demons, nothing can destroy this.

Blake takes off her helmet and gets off the bike. "Yang, how did you ever find this place?" Blake questions, both disbelief and joy evident in her voice.

Yang also takes off her helmet and hangs it on her motorcycle. "Well, one day, I wanted to get out a bit. Away from Beacon and Vale. Away from everyone, just to be away. As I was cycling, I just barely saw the little opening that we went through and I decided to go in and see where it led, which was here. If I ever needed to think or just be alone for a bit, I'd go here." She explains with a level and serious voice.

"It-It's beautiful."

"I know right? It's awesome!" Yang yells out, causing a few birds above to flee in terror of the blond "brute."

" _Nice job ruining the calm Yang."_ Blake thinks, but she can't help but smile and let out a small giggle at her girlfriend's actions.

"Come on." Yang grabs Blake's hand and begins dragging her to the circle, Blake not giving any resistance and just going along with it.

She leads her to the circle of flowers and moonlight, obviously excited to show her how much you can see in the sky. "Lay down." Yang tells Blake, smiling.

Blake adorns a sensual, flirty smirk. "Gladly." She then begins to lie down and looks into the sky… and she can't believe what her eyes are telling her. "Oh my…" The final word dies on her lips.

Yang follows suit and lies down with a smile on her face. She lets out a happy sigh. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Definitely." Is all Blake can say as her eyes dart to each and every visible star in the sky, which is a lot, way more than usual. "Wow. Thank you Yang."

"For what?"

"For bringing me here." She explains.

She shrugs. "Anything for my kitten." Yang begins to pet Blake's cat ears, taking off the ribbon that hides them.

Blake purrs in delight, which makes Yang's heart swell even more. Because of the petting, Blake's mind drifts away to her subconscious thoughts, just like the ride, with no specific destination in mind. "Mmm, Yang." She says in obvious pleasure.

"Yeah baby."

"I love you." The pets stop as a painful few seconds pass by, a few seconds that feel like an eternity to Blake. " _Oh my GOD! Why would I say that? This is terrible. What's she gonna say? What's she going to d-"_ Her inner thoughts are cut off as a pair of soft, familiar lips plant themselves on her own. It takes her mind a second or two to register that Yang is kissing her passionately. She kisses back, revelling in these few moments after expressing her love to Yang.

Finally, they separate, panting from the kiss. "I love you too kitten." Yang reveals.

Blake's orange eyes widen as she thinks about what her girlfriend just said. Blake collides with her again, initiating another heated kiss in the moment. Yang puts her hands on Blake's hips, caressing her body gently. Once they separate again, Blake leans close and whispers into Yang's ear, knowing how to make her get in the mood. "What do you say we solidify our love?"

"I wouldn't want anything more." They kiss once more, undressing in the woods.

The two continued to make their love real in every movement and word that night, truly making this one of the best nights of their life, especially now that they have a new place. A place to be together in every way. Their place… and only theirs.

 _ **A/N: And finally, freaking finally, this chapter is done. This was so difficult, but once I got into a rhythm, which was basically the last thousand words or so, I finally got it down and finished. Be looking forward to the next chapter as it will be concentrating on the training Shade will be providing to the school in preparation for the demon attack coming. Then after that, the battle and this story will be finished in an epic way, and I'll finally be able to announce my newest project I had mentioned earlier at the top.**_

 _ **Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed, and have an amazing day.**_

 _ **H.G. AKA GalaxyExplorer74**_


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